Consumer goods giant Unilever Plc/NV expects its strong sales volume growth in Western Europe to slow later in 2010 after pushing up prices as commodity costs start to rise again, its western European chief executive said.

Western Europe accounts for 30 percent of Unilever Plc/NV's global sales and the region has turned in four successive quarters of positive underlying volume growth as it looks to reinvigorate these mature and sluggish markets.

"We see a continuation of volume growth in 2010, but this will slow in the latter part of the year, while prices will turn positive towards the back end of the year," Doug Baillie in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

"Our best view is that pricing will be negative in Q2 and Q3 and then turn positive towards the end of the year," he said about his region, which stretches from Norway in the north to Greece in the south and from Ireland eastwards to Austria.

The group's big northern European businesses, such as in Britain, Germany, France and the Benelux countries, have shown slow growth while southern Europe has been hit by financial crisis, deep recession and high unemployment.

"It will be a difficult year in western Europe. It will be slow steady growth in northern Europe, but southern Europe will be very challenging and very difficult," Baillie said.

Unilever did see positive sales volume growth in the first quarter in Spain and Italy but Greece was very difficult due to the national debt crisis and Portugal was also tough.

Baillie expects the group's West European markets to be flat to 1 percent higher in 2010, while the euro zone is likely to see the full impact of the debt crisis, Greece in particular.