European car sales recover in February

16/03/11 15:34 CET

economy

| |

New car sales in Europe rose in February, their first increase in eleven months.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association says they were up by 0.9 percent compared with February last year.

In continental Europe’s two biggest markets Germany and France sales were up 15.2 percent and 13.2 percent respectively.

Italian sales fell 20.5 and Spain nearly 27.6 percent. UK sales slipped 7.7 percent year-on-year.

The Portuguese market contracted by 12.7 percent and Greece saw a fall of 49.1 percent.

In the first two months of the year, EU car registrations fell 0.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year

Volkswagen and General Motors did best. VW group’s sales rose 9.1 percent, while GM’s were up by 8.3 percent.

Fiat, Ford and PSA Peugeot Citroen all sold fewer vehicles in February than they did one year earlier.

More about: Business, Car industry, Economy

| |

JavaScript is required in order to view this article’s accompanying video

Syrian government blames rebels for Houla massacre

International outrage is mounting over a massacre in Syria that has left more than 100 people dead, many of them children. Under pressure, the Syrian government has blamed rebels for the killings, which happened in the town of Houla in Homs province on Friday. UN military…