Dutch supermarket group Ahold on Thursday said it was able to increase sales in the third quarter of 2012, although the difficult economic circumstances put the profit under pressure.

The net sales of Ahold amounted to 7.6 billion euros (9.7 billion U.S. dollars), an increase of 3.7 percent at constant exchange rates compared to the same period last year. Operating income, meanwhile, stood at 289 million euros, a decrease of 3.7 percent.

The net profit fell by more than 45.9 percent in the July-September period to 139 million euros and the underlying operating margin was 4.1 percent.