New Delhi: The country's largest passenger car-maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, on Monday said its sales have dipped in August for the first time in five months as a result of higher interest rates and soaring inflation.
Sales fell 9.2 per cent last month to 59,908 cars, vans and sport-utility vehicles, the company said in a statement.
Interest rates, which are at a seven-year high, and the annual rate of inflation, at a 16-year high, are squeezing consumer spending in India.
The slowdown in growth may undermine the Government's target of tripling car sales to three million vehicles annually by 2015.
Maruti said domestic sales fell 10.2 per cent to 54,113 vehicles in August. Exports gained one per cent to 5,795.
A total of 59,944 smaller passenger car models like Alto, Swift, Wagon-R and M-800 were sold in August, as against 53,351 in the corresponding month last year.
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