Reckitt Benckiser has shrugged off the economic malaise that is starting to worry consumer goods rivals by promising to expand sales at twice the rate of the market this year and increase net income by 8-10 per cent.

Less than a week after Unilever said that the outlook was too uncertain to provide guidance on profits for 2009, Reckitt’s chief executive Bart Becht said that he had “the right targets for the current market conditions”.