Coca Cola chief executive Muhar Kent has hailed the beginning of a global economic recovery, as the soft drinks giant benefited from growth in emerging markets helped the soft drinks giant to a 2% rise in sales volumes.

Although volumes were down by 2% in Europe and by 4% in North America, that was offset by growth in markets such as India, China and Brazil.

Profits for the past three months were flat at $1.9bn, while net revenues slipped 4% to $8bn.

“In emerging markets in general... we see a really pretty significant rebound in [consumer] psyche, spending and so forth,” Kent said.