Tesco has announced strong third-quarter trading with sales growth of five per cnt in the UK.

Group sales for the 13 weeks ending 27 November increased by 8.8 per cent. The UK business is growing faster than the industry as a whole, with total sales excluding petrol and including VAT up by five per cent.

Like-for-like sales improved to 1.5 per cent (including VAT and excluding petrol) despite inflation staying low for much of the quarter.

The retailer said in a statement that it sees evidence of a steady consumer recovery with sales of its Finest range building on growth in the third quarter last year to enter double-digit growth on a two-year basis.

Chief Executive, Terry Leahy said: “We’ve made good progress in the third quarter with growth from across the group. Our continued investment in the shopping trip and our new-space opening programme across our markets are giving us good sales momentum and market share gains. As the global economic recovery gathers pace, our broad-based strategy, combined with our ongoing focus on productivity savings, is enabling us to maintain growth in a sustainable, profitable way - delivering value for customers and for shareholders.”

Total international sales increased by 15.7 per cent. The sales performance in Asia was particularly strong showing 23.4 per cent growth.

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