Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, has raised its forecast for full-year earnings per share from 80p to 83p in a management statement yesterday.

The publishing group said its underlying performance for the first nine months of 2011 was in line with the forecast it gave in July, when it issued the 80p guidance.

But its results benefited from lower-than-expected tax charges and related interest payments.

Pearson said it was weathering headwinds in its key North American education division caused by falling US state school budgets.

But the unit nevertheless saw an underlying fall of 1 per cent in revenues after stripping out the effects of favourable currency movements over previous years and of changes in the portfolio.

There was underlying growth in all other divisions except Penguin, where sales were flat. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011