Strong growth in emerging markets, raising prices and offering consumers more options of popular items helped Procter & Gamble Co. post a nearly 9% increase in its fiscal first quarter, the consumer products maker said Wednesday.

But P&G dropped the low end of its earnings guidance for the full fiscal year, facing slower sales amid volatility in commodity and energy markets and in foreign exchange.

The maker of household products such as Tide detergent, Pampers diapers and Olay skin care said net income rose to more than $3.3 billion, or $1.03 per share, from $3.1 billion, or 92 cents a share, a year earlier.

Quarterly sales rose 9 percent to $22 billion, led by double-digit growth in emerging markets. The company has been increasingly looking to developing economies such as China, India and Brazil for sales growth.

P&G has increased prices and productivity to help offset higher energy and raw materials costs, while battling trade-down tendencies among budget-strapped U.S. consumers. The company has added new versions of household products such as Tide detergent and Gillette shavers and emphasizes in commercials that people get more value from its products, such as Charmin toilet paper it says is more absorbent than that of its competitors.

“This quarter was yet another example of the strength of P&G’s balanced brand and geographic portfolio,” said Chairman and CEO A.G. Lafley.

He told investors in a conference call that while consumers are buying more private-label items, P&G’s brands are holding their own or growing in most categories, and benefiting from a range of pricing options such as cheaper “basic” versions of its Bounty paper towels and Charmin.

“The thing I like about the way we have gone into this downturn is we have stronger portfolios in place across categories and stronger portfolios in place across leading brands,” Lafley said.

Among brands with double-digit sales growth for the quarter were Gillette Fusion shavers, Head & Shoulders shampoo, Gain detergent, and Cover Girl and SK-II cosmetics.

Lafley, who recently returned from a trip to Asia, said P&G hasn’t seen signs that the spreading economic crisis is having a major impact on its business in developing countries.

“Based on everything we see, it’s holding up pretty well and we’re counting on emerging markets to continue to be half or more of our growth,” he said.