French car sales jump 20% in October

Sales of new cars in France exceeded 210,000 in October, an year-on-year increase of over 20 percent, the French Car Makers Association (CCFA) said Monday.

Thanks to the government's stimulus program, the French car brands gained a sale lift of 25.4 percent in October compared with last October, while the foreign car makers saw a lift of 14.1 percent, among which, General Motors boosted its sales by 60 percent in French market.

Over the first ten months of this year, France's car market grew 4.2 percent compared with the same period of 2008, with over 1.82 million new plates got registered. France-made brands Citroen, Peugeot and Renault saw a whole sale of 986,000 cars, increasing 6.1 percent on year-on-year basis.

French homegrown cars took a market share of 54.1 percent in the first ten months of 2009, one point more than last year's level.

The government support of "cash-for-clunkers" subsidies and bonus to eco-friendly cars kept giving momentum to car sales in October, however, as the stimulus are going to fade in next year, the prosperity of French car market may faint as well.

Guillaume Mouren, the analyst of Xerfi, France's major provider of sector market analyses, predicted a 10 percent decline for next year's new car sales.

Source:Xinhua