PARIS, France - Carrefour, the world's second-biggest retailer, said on Thursday that like-for-like sales growth slowed in the third quarter, reflecting low consumer sentiment in austerity-hit southern Europe, and falling fruit and vegetable prices across the region.

Growth in Brazil, Carrefour's largest market after France, stayed robust in the quarter, however, while trading conditions remained weak in China.

Europe's largest retailer said third-quarter sales were 21.077 billion euros ($27.01 billion), in line with the average forecast of 21 billion in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Stripping out fuel and currencies, revenue grew 2.8 percent in the quarter, a slowdown from 4.9 percent growth in the second quarter.

Sales fell 1.2 percent in Spain after rising for three consecutive quarters, while revenue at French hypermarkets fell 0.2 percent after rising 0.4 percent in the second quarter, also snapping a growth streak of five consecutive quarters.

1 US dollar = 0.7803 euro