Moscow, Oct 9 - X5 Retail Group, Russia's largest food retailer by revenue, said on Friday its full-year sales growth could be less than the previously expected 25 percent as crisis-hit consumers scale back spending.
"Due to the persistence of trading-down trends among consumers and expected pressure on average purchase size in the fourth quarter 2009, X5 revises its full-year revenue growth outlook to a more conservative range of around 24 to 25 percent in rouble terms on a pro-forma basis," the company said.
X5 said in a statement third-quarter net retail sales rose 24 percent year-on-year to 65.7 billion roubles ($2.2 billion), but fell 4 percent in dollar terms to $2.1 billion due to the weaker Russian currency.
Like-for-like sales rose 8 percent, helped by 7 percent growth in consumer traffic, while the average ticket price edged up 1 percent.