Nestle Shares Jump as CEO Re-affirms Targets

Shares of Nestle got a mid-session lift Friday after company CEO Peter Brabeck told "Power Lunch Europe" the Swiss food giant sees no impediment from a possible U.S. recession in reaching its growth target for 2008.

Nestle aims to grow organic sales by 5-6 percent annually.

"We have delivered over the last 11 years consecutively this target, we will deliver it also in 2008, whether there is a recession or there is not a recession in the United States," Brabeck said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Nestle's stock jumped over 1.5 percent on the back of the comments and closed 1.7 percent higher on the session.

"The fundamentals for the consumer goods industry are very good," Brabeck said, adding that the growing population and the rise in living standards globally would underpin the group's performance.

Nestle's strong innovation and product pipeline will also help to stave off the effect of a slowing U.S. economy, he said.

"This will be decisive … more decisive than whether there is or not a recession in the U.S.," said Brabeck with reference to Nestle's future product launches.

Nestle is due to report full-year results on February 21.