Germany's retailing giant, METRO group, Wednesday reported a 4.9 percent sales increase to 14.06 billion euros (17.01 billion US dollars) in the third quarter of this year, the group said Wednesday.

Outside Germany, METRO's sales went up 11.4 percent in the quarter compared with the same period of last year. And in Germany, its sales fell 1.6 percent, it said.

The share of international sales continued to rise and reached 53.1 percent in the third quarter, the company said.

"In Germany by contrast, the market climate is influenced by ongoing uncertainty," METRO said in a press release. "With the Election's outcome, the generally expected improvement in consumer sentiment failed to materialize."

The visibility for the fourth quarter is also impaired, METRO said, adjusting its sales expectation for 2005 to an increase of around 4 percent.

However, the company's business in Eastern Europe continued to experience an extremely successful trend at a sales increase of 22 percent in the third quarter.

In Western Europe, sales rose 5.7 percent despite the partly difficult market environment. In the Asian and African region, sales posted a 5.9 percent rise.

Earnings before taxes rose 18.1 percent to a total of 248.7 million euros (298.5 million US dollars) for METRO in the quarter.

In the first nine months, METRO Group lifted sales by 4.2 percent to 41.30 billion euros (49.6 billion US dollars) while earnings before taxes went up by 13.8 percent to 515.7 million euros (618.8 US dollars).

METRO Group is one of the most important international retailing companies in Germany. In 2004 the group's sales hit 56.4 billion euros (67.7 billion US dollars). The company has about 250,000 employees and operates around 2,400 locations in about 30 countries.

Source: Xinhua