Nestlé first-half sales stagnate

(AP) -- Swiss-based food and drinks group Nestle on Tuesday announced first-half sales of SFr35.3 billion ($22 billion), unchanged from the same period last year.

(AP) — Swiss-based food and drinks group Nestle on Tuesday announced first-half sales of SFr35.3 billion ($22 billion), unchanged from the same period last year.

Nestle said unfavorable foreign exchange rates had a negative impact of around 4.4 percent on the sales figure. It said it “expects again an improvement in sales and profits” over the full year, barring unforeseen negative factors.

In March, Nestle said its net group profit for last year rose by 2.6 percent to SFr4.29 billion (then $3.15 billion).

The group said its real internal growth — a measure of sales which excludes exchange rate effects and the impact of acquisitions — rose by 2.1 percent in the first half of 1999.

That came on the back of good business development in several large European markets, in Japan, Mexico and the United States, it said.

While Russia, Brazil and a number of Latin American markets are still faced with the economic crises, “virtually all the group’s operational companies in Southeast Asia have reverted to growth,” Nestle said.