Reckitt Benckiser boosted by hygiene product sales in emerging markets In the first quarter of 2012, like-for-like sales in Europe and North American dropped 1pc, while Latin American and Asia-Pacific rose 11pc and Russia, the Middle East and Africa improved 9pc. However, Europe and North America still accounted for 55pc of core revenues. "Reckitt Benckiser's first-quarter results were on track and in line with our ongoing expectations," Mr Kapoor said. The company reiterated its 2012 target to grow like-for-like revenues by 200 basis points above the growth of its markets, which is forecast to be 1pc to 2pc. Reckitt shares rose 32p to £36.19 following the trading update. Pablo Zuanic, an analyst at Liberum Capital, said: "The numbers are encouraging and imply a good start to the year as despite a bad flu season the company managed to come in slightly ahead of full-year guidance. However, nothing was said in the press release about the Leap Year and earlier Easter effect, which other companies have quantified as a 1.5 percentage points benefit. He added that because Reckitt's sales growth had been driven by an increase in volume rather than prices, this "raises the question about profitability given the lingering high cost inflation environment other companies have talked about."