Quarter in, quarter out, Unilever grinds out perfectly acceptable numbers, with growth in most key markets, useful acquisitions and generally improving margins — and Paul Polman, the Eeyore-ish chief executive, tells us things are getting worse. The two are not mutually incompatible.
Mr Polman was warning again yesterday of no signs of an improvement in the world economy, and the uncertainties have obviously grown, given Brexit, Turkey and the US elections. Unilever also had some headwinds from currency movements because it reports in euros and gets revenues from countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, India and Spain that have seen rapid depreciation against the European currency.
In underlying terms, sales were up by 4.7 per cent in the first six months, consisting about half-and-half of