Sales in Africa and the Middle East
advanced strongly, with our breweries
in Nigeria and Egypt performing espe
cially well. The results of the operating
companies suffered from the weak
ness of the dollar, the Nigerian naira
and the Egyptian pound. Because the
economies of many countries are
largely dependent on the value of the
US currency, this affected consumer
purchasing power in many countries
in the region. Despite a good perform
ance by most of the operating com
panies, the overall result in euros was
lower. The war in Iraq also had a nega
tive effect on the beer market in
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