Sales of the Irish whiskey Jameson have risen by 27 percent over the course of the last three months.

Reports from Jameson's parent company Pernod Ricard have outlined a global rise in sales in the first three months of the company's fiscal year.

There was a rise of 12 percent in total global sales the last fiscal year.

The main growth was from the Asian markets where 25 percent of sales increased from June to September.

The rate of decline in the U.K, Spain and Ireland slowed down to three percent.

The previous year that figure was at seven percent for the same countries.

There was a strong sales growth in Germany and the Ukraine but Greece's Jameson drinkers decreased by 39 percent.

Greece has been hit very strongly by the recession.

The company has described the jump as "encouraging."

The Jameson brand was acquired by French drinks conglomerate Pernod Ricard in 1988, when it bought Irish Distillers.