"Foreign exchange decreased sales by 15.1 percent, and divestitures net of acquisitions by 5.7 percent," it added.

Overall organic growth was, however, up 7.3 percent, with increases recorded across markets, led by Asia, where organic growth reached 13.1 percent.

"In a tough environment, we continued to build our capabilities and positions for the future while maintaining strong growth across regions and categories," said the group's chief executive Paul Bulcke.

"The constant renovation of our existing product portfolio together with our strong pipeline of game-changing innovations resulted in many market share gains," he added.

Bulcke also said that the group would "slightly over-perform" its long-term organic growth target of 5 to 6 percent for the full year.