French retailer Carrefour recorded a 5.2 per cent sales increase in the first quarter of its 2007 business year. The French retail giant announced this yesterday, after closure of trading at the French stock exchange.

Carrefour’s Q1 sales grew to a level of €21.48bn, which exceeded the expecatations of amalysts. Reuters reported the analysts’ expectations of the retailers’ Q1 sales to be €21.35bn. In its domestic market france, Carrefour recorded a lower than expected sales of €9.85bn. This result was largely due to disappointing performance of the discount and supermarket operations, as Carrefour’s core hypermarket operation performed above average. Internationally, Carrefour performed well in Asia and Latin america, where sales soared by 15 and 10 per cent respectively.