Procter & Gamble Co

lowered the high end of its profit forecast for the year on Thursday, as it does what it can to trim expenses and raises some prices to offset rising costs for materials.

Smaller rival Colgate-Palmolive Co also said higher costs cut into its margins, but its quarterly earnings met analysts' expectations.

Consumer goods makers are paying more for transport and a variety of materials, from pulp used to make tissues to resin used to make detergent bottles.

The companies have started to roll out a variety of price increases on products ranging from diapers to detergent.

P&G's forecast echoed comments from rival Unilever Plc/NV , which is also feeling a pinch from higher commodity costs. The Anglo-Dutch maker, whose products include Dove soap and Hellmann's mayonnaise, said it would squeeze more cost-savings out of its operations to compensate.

P&G's profit rose in the latest quarter, but missed Wall Street's expectations [ID:nN28183619]. Its shares fell 1.7 percent to $62.90 in premarket trading.

The operating environment is very difficult, P&G Chief Executive Officer Bob McDonald said in a statement.

Higher materials costs are spreading across the packaged goods industry. Soft-drink and snack food maker PepsiCo Inc

posted a lower quarterly profit on Thursday, hurt by rising commodity costs.

P&G said it now expected fiscal-year core earnings, which exclude some items, of $3.91 to $3.96 per share. The high end of that forecast previously was $4.01 per share.

Consumer product companies are banking on increasing demand in countries such as China and India as growth in developed markets such as the United States and Western Europe has stagnated.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl and Brad Dorfman in Chicago and David Jones in London; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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