Reckitt Benckiser reports sales gain, stands by full-year goal

(Adds details, background)

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Britain's Reckitt Benckiser (Xetra: A0M1W6 - news) Group reported higher quarterly sales on Friday, helped by growth across all regions, and stood by its full-year target.

The results beat some analysts' expectations, and provided more evidence that the consumer goods sector is moving past some of the troubles it saw in 2014 when a slowdown in emerging markets crimped demand for everything from soup to soap.

The maker of Durex condoms, Mucinex cold medicine and other goods said sales rose 1 percent to 2.22 billion pounds ($3.34 billion) in the first quarter.

Sales rose 5 percent on a like-for-like basis, which excludes the impact of currency, acquisitions, disposals and discontinued operations. Analysts on average had been expecting growth of 3.9 percent, according to analysts at Bernstein.

Like-for-like sales rose 3 percent in North America, helped by a strong flu season. Sales rose 6 percent in developing markets, helped by improvements in India, partially offset by weakness in Brazil.

Reckitt said it was on track to meet its full-year goals for 4 percent like-for-like sales growth and "moderate to nice" operating margin expansion.

($1 = 0.6640 pounds) (Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)