Underlying sales, price, volume growth beat forecasts
Past peak cost inflation finance chief
Focus is on volume growth finance chief
Shares up 5

LONDON, July 25 Reuters Unilever on Tuesday beat underlying sales growth forecasts after again raising prices to offset higher costs, boosting shares in the maker of Dove soap and Ben Jerry39;s ice cream.

The British company reported a 7.9 rise in underlying secondquarter sales, beating analysts39; average forecast of 6.4, a companyprovided consensus showed.

The company said it expects underlying sales growth for the full year to be above 5, ahead of its multiyear range, with underlying price growth continuing to moderate through the year.

My early immersion in the business has confirmed my belief in Unilever39;s strong fundamentals, new CEO Hein Schumacher said in a statement. These are Schumacher39;s first Unilever results, having taken over from Alan Jope earlier this month.

Underlying price growth for the second quarter was 8.2 while underlying volumes fell by 0.3, beating analysts39; expectations of 7.7 and a drop of 1.2, respectively.

Shares in Unilever following the results were up 5 at 4,221 pence as of 0851 GMT.

What the market39;s taking positively today is that you haven39;t seen a sharp decline in volumes despite them pushing through pricing, said Richard Saldanha, a fund manager at Unilever investor Aviva.

Unilever said it expects net material inflation for 2023 to be around 2 billion euros of which…