LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone posted third quarter results slightly below forecasts on Thursday as increasingly tough trading in Spain and Italy overshadowed solid performances in emerging markets and northern Europe for the world's largest mobile operator.
Vodafone said group organic service revenue, which comes from the provision of ongoing services to customers, was up 0.9 percent, compared with an analyst forecast of 1.1 percent.
European organic service revenue was also worse than expected, down 1.7 percent as the huge financial constraints on consumers in Italy, Spain and Greece pulled down otherwise solid performances in the two big northern markets of Britain and Germany.
Analysts had been expecting Europe to be down by 1.4 percent. Spain and Italy were both particularly weak, down 8.8 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.
Balancing that out, growth within the other faster-growing division of Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, known as AMAP, was up 7.6 percent, solid but still below the forecast of 8.3 percent.
"Despite the further deterioration of the southern European economic environment during the quarter, our broad geographic mix is delivering a resilient overall performance," Chief Executive Vittorio Colao said.
The group did not make any change to its outlook for the full-year.
