* Russian car sales down 5 pct in September after 10 pct August drop
* Industry group says auto sector still suffering
Oct 8 (Reuters) – The outlook for the Russian car market remains difficult even if the pace of falling sales slowed sharply last month, a trade group said on Tuesday.
Car sales have dropped due to weakness in the $2 trillion economy. The Association of European Businesses (AEB), a lobby of Europe’s top auto makers, has cut its 2013 sales forecast to 2.8 million vehicles, a 5 percent fall.
The AEB said car sales in September fell five percent year-on-year, after a fall of 10 percent in the previous month.
It said 246,895 units were sold in September.
“The average temperature in the hospital is improving, but the patient as a whole is still far from being well,” said Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.
“Such could be the ‘diagnosis’ for the total market situation in September – on a monthly basis (the) sales trend shows signs of improvement,” Schreiber said in a statement.
Sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles fell 7 percent in January-September from the same period last year.
Schreiber said the market still lacked sufficient strength to achieve a stable level, a condition for moderate growth in the future.
Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVAZ, which Franco-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan plans to take control of by mid-2014, last week reported first half results showing it swung to a net loss.
Western car makers such as General Motors, Ford and Fiat have invested heavily in Russia.
Source: Reuters
