“Nevertheless, the strong half-one results also reflect our favorable cocoa pipeline compared to current market prices, which will clearly reverse and will be a meaningful headwind in the second half.”

In context

“h solid price execution and a decline in volume mix. Note that Argentina pricing has been capped at 26% unlike Q2 last year where the country contributed more than 15 points to Latin American growth. Brazil and our Western Andean region both delivered mid-single-digit growth. Mexico growth was modest, in part due to lower flow of public subsidies to households that is expected to resume in the second half. Consumer confidence remains strong in Mexico, while Brazil and the Western India countries continue to demonstrate solid growth. Latin America delivered OI growth of nearly plus 24% supported by strong pricing. Turning to Page 16, In Q2, we saw strong double digit OI and gross profit dollar growth. Top line strength, pricing execution, ongoing cost discipline partly drove these results. Nevertheless, the strong half-one results also reflect our favorable cocoa pipeline compared to current market prices, which will clearly reverse and will be a meaningful headwind in the second half. Next to EPS on Slide 17. Q2 EPS grew plus 25% in constant currency. Most of this growth was driven by operating gains, as well as favorable cocoa cost pipeline and coverage strategies. And despite currency headwinds, we grew adjusted EPS at reported Forex by more than 19%. We are holding our EPS call for the year despite these gains, since Cocoa will become a more material headwind in the second half. We continue to demonstrate strong free cash flow and capital deployment, as you can see on our Slide 18. We delivered $1.5 billion of free cash flow in half one. We have repurchased $1.1 billion in stock through half one and will remain opportunistic for the remainder of the year. We also announced today that we are raising our dividend by 11%, marking nine consecutive years with a double-di”