French auto makers sell less cars in August

France's sales of new cars declined by 10.9 percent last month after they had inched up by 0.9 percent in July, the French car sales federation CCFA said Monday. New car sales stood at 85,565 units with sold French brands fell by 9.1 percent over the period on reported sharp fall in sales of PSA Peugeot Citroen, France's largest auto maker, according to CCFA's statement. At the end of August, PSA sold 23,539 vehicles, down by 17.3 percent compared to same month a year earlier while sales of Renault rose by 1.7 percent after providing 21,880 new cars. Sales of foreign cars brands also suffered 13-percent drop, it added. "August sales are traditionally low... But last month, they were really low," the daily Le Parisien quoted a CCFA spokesman as saying. "We should not have a sharp decline in September or October when usually we report high sales due to open days organized by car dealers," he added. The CCFA expected the domestic auto market to decline by 8 percent for the whole year of 2013.