Sales at Tesco rose by 12.2 per cent during the 14 weeks to November 20, compared to the same period last year.
UK sales alone increased by 12.3 per cent, which on the back of a second quarter rise of 11.8 per cent, points to another phenomenally successful year for the UK’s biggest high street operator.
Like-for-like UK sales growth in the period was 9.8 per cent, but Tesco said that petrol performance had pushed the figures higher - the like-for-like hike was 7.5 per cent excluding petrol.
The group’s international expansion continued apace, with sales growth of 18.2 per cent using constant exchange rates.
"The core UK business has delivered another strong performance, sales and market share in non-food have increased, our international operations have continued to make good progress and our retailing services businesses have grown fast," said a Tesco statement.
Rumours in the City surrounding a possible merger with Carrefour were largely dismissed out-of-hand, although Tesco made no comment. Tesco has performed very well against Wal-Mart in the UK and it is widely believed that a tie-up with carrefour is un-necessary at this juncture.
Tesco will be opening an additional 1.4 million square feet of trading space during the final quarter of its financial year, and therefore expects to see overseas sales increase even further.
Tesco shares have outperformed the FTSE-100 index by 10 per cent this year, and closed on Wednesday at 298p.
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