Tesco met forecasts with a 4.1% rise in underlying third-quarter UK sales and said its new US stores had been 'very well received' by customers.
The supermarket group, which runs over 3,200 stores across the world and opened its first shop in the US last month, said total group sales rose 11.8% in the 13 weeks to November 24.
The 4.1% rise in sales, excluding fuel, at UK stores open at least a year, was up from 2.4% in the second quarter and compared with analysts' forecasts of 3.5-to 4.5%.
Tesco is the world's third-biggest retailer behind US group Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour. But it makes about 80% of sales and profits from its 2,000 stores in Britain, where it takes about one in every eight pounds spent by shoppers and one in three spent in supermarkets.
Britain's retailers are generally struggling as indebted shoppers cut back on spending following a string of interest rate increases. Electrical goods retailer DSG warned last week that consumer confidence across Europe was fragile.
From its roots in groceries, Tesco has branched out to sell everything from clothes and DVDs to insurance and mobile phones. It now employs more than 450,000 people across the world and is in the midst of a hotly anticipated rollout of Fresh & Easy convenience stories on the West Coast of the US.
