Carrefour third quarter sales accelerate with France, Brazil

Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer, said on Wednesday that sales growth accelerated in the third quarter, reflecting an improving performance in its core French and Brazilian markets.

Elsewhere in Europe, however, Spain and Italy were tough spots amid competitive pressures and challenging economic conditions.

Third-quarter sales came to 21.087 billion euros (£18.52 billion), roughly in line with analyst estimates of 21.1 billion euros in an Inquiry Financial poll for Reuters.

Growth reached 2.1 percent on a like-for-like basis excluding fuel and calendar effects, against 0.9 percent in the previous quarter.

Carrefour is in the midst of a five-year plan to cut costs and jobs, boost E-commerce investment and seek a partnership in China with Tencent in a bid to boost profits and revenues and help it tackle competition from Amazon.