Nestle's difficult 2016 has continued, it has cut its full year forecast revenue growth to 3.5% - down from an original growth target of 4.2%.

In the first nine months of 2016, sales grew by 3.3% - Bloomberg reports that analysts had expected this figure to be 3.6%. The company is experiencing its softest underlying sales growth in more than 10 years.

The group, which is the world's largest food company, has been fighting rising costs of raw materials.

"In an environment marked by deflation and low raw material prices, we continued to privilege volume growth," chief executive Paul Bulcke said.

He added that "Pricing remained soft but [is] increasing."

Mr Bulcke will leave his position on January 1st and will be replaced by Ulf Mark Schneider. He has a background in the medical industry and is expected to help Nestle to continue to move towards nutrition and health focused products.

Sales growth in emerging markets slowed to 5.3% in the year to the end of September, this represents a significant drop-off since 2015 when these markets delivered full year growth of 8.9%.