Nestle reports sales down 2.2 per cent in first nine months

Geneva - Food giant Nestle reported Thursday that sales in the first nine months of the year reached 79.5 billion Swiss francs (78.8 billion dollars), down 2.2 per cent, with organic growth of 3.6 per cent.

Divestitures and the strength of the Swiss franc compared to most other currencies were cited as the cause for the decline in revenue.

The world's largest food producer did not change its outlook for the rest of the year, but said it decided to increase the 2009 share buyback programme from 4 billion francs to 7 billion.

Continuing a trend, bottled water sales were again down.

The European region was the worst performer for the company, with no organic growth and a negative real internal growth of 1.5 per cent.

Emerging markets, including Brazil, China and the Middle East saw improvements. (dpa)