Auto sales manage to be positive, rise 1 per cent YOY

The Indian Auto industry somehow managed to record positive growth in the fiscal ended March 31. With the help of government's stimulus packages, the car sale in India rose 0.71 per cent from a year earlier. The figure was shared by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM) on Wednesday. A late surge in the last quarter of the fiscal, total vehicle sales in the country stood at 97, 23,391 units compared with 96, 54,435 units in the last financial year. In the financial year 2008-09, the domestic passenger car sales rose by 1.31 per cent to 12, 19,473 units from 12, 03,733 units in the April-March period of the earlier fiscal. SIAM Director General Dilip Chenoy said, Had it not been for the stimulus packages, passenger vehicle sales would have been down three per cent or no growth, while commercial vehicles would have had a decline of 30-40 per cent.”