Italy new car sales down 10.88% in July

MILAN: Italian new car registrations fell 10.88 percent to 190,889 units in July, according to government figures published on Friday. Registrations for cars from Fiat SpA's three brands fell 5.5 percent in the year, according to Reuters calculations.

Fiat market share was 32.19 percent. Earlier, research group Promotor had said it expected car sales to have fallen less than in June, when the overall drop was 19.5 percent.

French new car sales edged 0.2 percent lower in July while in Spain, car sales dropped 27.5 percent. Car sales are suffering as the global credit crunch and severe economic slowdown puts brakes on consumer spending.