July 16 (Bloomberg) -- European car sales fell 7.9 percent in June on higher fuel prices and a slump in demand spreading north from Spain and Italy. Japanese automakers led the declines.
New car registrations dropped to 1,427,008 from 1,549,574 in June 2007, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said today in a statement. Sales for the first half of the year slid 2 percent, accelerating the 0.7 percent contraction recorded in the first five months.
``Only France and Germany are holding up the EU market, but even growth in these two regions is beginning to slow,'' London- based Citigroup analysts Kristina Church and John Lawson said in a report to investors.
Carmakers face a squeeze from surging oil prices and other raw materials costs on the one hand and flagging demand for new cars on the other. Consumer confidence sank to a three-year low last month in the 15 countries that share the euro, the European Commission said in June.
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