India's car sales rise after five months

Dec 8, 2011, 10:10 GMT

New Delhi - New car sales in India recorded a 7-per-cent rise in November compared with the same month in 2010 after four-straight months of slumps, an industry group said Thursday.

The recovery would not enough to meet a modest forecast of 2- to 4-per-cent growth for the current financial year, which ends March 31, an official of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said.

'The growth in November is not enough,' senior director Sugato Sen said. 'We may have to revise our growth forecast for car sales for the financial year in January.'

Sen said rising fuel costs and repeated interest rate hikes have slowed car sales and the sales figures in December could be lower than November.

Domestic passenger car sales in November stood at 1.71 million units, compared with 1.6 million in the same month of 2010, according to society data.

'Domestic car sales have bounced back as the base in November last year was low,' Sen said. 'Also, we have seen some revival of demand in last month.'

A major reason for the monthly decline in year-on-year car sales since July was the fall in output from the small-car-segment leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd because of workers strikes.