Car sales sluggish in EU

New car sales in the European Union (EU) shrank month on month by 1.8 percent in October, figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) showed on Wednesday. The EU's new vehicle registrations totaled 1,005,976 in October, according to Brussels-based ACEA. New car sales in the first 10 months decreased by 1.2 percent to 11.13 million, compared with the same period last year. Countries bogged down in the current debt crisis were hit harder by the drop. New car registrations in Italy and Spain dropped by 5.5 percent and 6.7 percent respectively in October and slumped by 10.8 percent and 19.7 percent respectively from January to October compared with a year earlier. New car sales plummeted by 51.8 percent, 40.5 percent and 35.7 percent respectively in Ireland, Portugal and Greece, the three countries that bear the brunt of the EU debt crisis. Analysts have predicted that new car sales in Western Europe will slide from previously-projected 12.8 million to 12.6 million, further down from 13 million in 2010. However, the sales volume of new cars in Germany, the largest economy in Europe, increased by 0.6 percent month on month in October.