PARIS, April 23 (Reuters) - French car maker Renault said on Tuesday its first-quarter revenue grew 1.8%, with good performance in its financing business offsetting a drop in turnover in core automotive sales.

The group sold 549,099 units over the period, with revenue reaching 11.7 billion euros ($12.47 billion).

The revenue beat a company-provided consensus anticipating a slight drop versus a year earlier to 11.49 billion euros. ($1 = 0.9385 euros) (Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Himani Sarkar)