UK supermarket giant Tesco on Thursday said group sales for the thirteen weeks ending on 26 November 2011 increased by 5.4 percent excluding petrol, compared with last year.

Like-for-like growth in Asia slowed sharply to 0.8 percent in the third quarter. Like-for-like sales in Malaysia jumped 5 percent, followed by China's 3.4 percent, Thailand's 1.4 percent and South Korea's 0.3 percent's growth. Total sales growth in Asia grew 9.7 percent.

The UK retailer's programme of remodelling hypermarkets to its Extra format is delivering good results in Europe and Asia, with the success of its first converted store in Thailand. Sales uplifts in all the stores converted so far are averaging 17 percent. The first Extra conversions in Korea and China will be completed in the next few weeks.