A strong recovery in emerging markets helped brewing giant SABMiller beat forecasts with a 16% rise in half-year earnings, while the Miller Lite brewer's markets in Europe and North America struggled.

The world's second-biggest brewer, which earns more than 80% of its profits from emerging markets, said Africa and Asia had fully recovered, while high unemployment in mature markets was holding back any upturn in beer sales.

Chief executive Graham Mackay yesterday painted a picture of a two-speed world, with beer volumes growing in Africa and Asia and recovering in Latin America after a tax rise in Colombia, while the western world saw little improvement.

"The outlook is extremely mixed. Emerging markets are fine although some have been hit by tax, but developed markets in Europe and North America are struggling," Mackay said after half-year results.

The brewer of Peroni and Grolsch beers said it would continue to benefit from lower raw material prices such as barley to the end of its March 2011 year, and then see a small rise the following year as higher grain prices work through.

SABMiller's finance director Malcolm Wyman said the group's cost of goods, including barley, aluminium and glass, would fall by a low single-digit percentage in the year to March 2011, but rise by not more than a similar amount in the year to March 2012 as higher grain and other prices start to hit the group.

The London-based company reported adjusted earnings per share of 93 US cents for the six months to end-September, compared with 88.7c from a company-compiled consensus. The half-year dividend rose by 15% to 19.5c a share.

Group revenues rose by 7% to $14.2-billion and operating profits or EBITA were up by 13% to $2.5-billion, helped by strong profits growth in Latin America, Africa, Asia and also North America, due partly to cost savings from the MillerCoor venture.

European profits fell as tough conditions in its main markets such as Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic hit consumer spending and encouraged downtrading to cheaper brands.

Brewers with big operations in emerging markets, like SABMiller and the world's biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, have seen a recovery in beer volumes, while Heineken and Carlsberg, with more operations in developed markets, have struggled for growth.

SABMiller shares have risen over 12% this year on prospects of a strong emerging markets recovery, narrowly outperforming the FTSE 100 and its peers.