Electrolux sees Q4 jump, weak South American market

Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux has reported a jump in fourth-quarter profits and a slight increase in sales, but cautioned about a weak market in South America hitting its earnings.

The world's second-largest appliance maker after U.S. rival Whirlpool, Electrolux said net profit for the period was 1.3 billion kronor ($148 million), up from a 393 million kronor deficit a year earlier.

The company said it had quarterly sales of 32.1 billion ($365 billion), a 1 percent increase from 31.8 billion during the same period last year.

CEO Jonas Samuelson said Wednesday that the trends are positive except in South America, where operations "continued to be impacted by a weakening market environment" and affected earnings and sales.

He says the outlook for 2017 is growth of "approximately 1 percent."