Russian Sept foreign car sales growth slows

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) - The growth of foreign car sales in
Russia slowed in September to its weakest annual pace in at
least 20 months, as the global financial crisis led to a
decrease in consumer demand for cars, data showed on Wednesday.

Sales of foreign car brands grew 22 percent last month,
year-on-year, to 179,423 units, data from the Association of
European Businesses in the Russian Federation (AEB) showed.
That was the slowest rate since January 2007 -- the earliest
monthly data available on AEB's website. For comparison, foreign
car sales in Russia grew 50 percent in September last year.

In the first nine months of the year, sales growth slowed to
40 percent from 63 percent in the same period of 2007.

Following are September sales for the top 10 foreign car
brands in Russia compared with the same period of 2007, as well
as total figures for foreign car sales. The figures include
foreign-branded vehicles produced in Russia:

BRAND Sept 08 Sept 07 pct ytd '08 ytd '07 pct
Toyota (7203.T) 18,233 10,981 66 145,388 110,484 32
Chevrolet* (GM.N) 16,353 16,689 -2 175,798 131,653 34
Hyundai (005380.KS) 16,110 15,208 6 159,392 95,685 67
Nissan (7201.T) 14,372 9,395 53 118,800 81,832 45
Ford (F.N) 12,600 14,555 -13 141,414 120,413 17
Mitsubishi (7211.T) 10,085 13,362 -25 89,462 69,917 28
Honda (7267.T) 9,946 4,072 144 60,440 23,842 154
Daewoo (GM.N) 8,795 7,644 15 80,069 66,941 20
Renault (RENA.PA) 8,400 8,763 -4 83,940 71,351 18
Opel (GM.N) 7,758 5,207 49 78,051 45,027 73
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total 179,423 147,286 22 1,611,840 1,152,448 40
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* Chevrolet sales include GM-Avtovaz joint venture.

NOTE - To see a full list of foreign car sales in Russia,
click here

- Source: AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.
(Writing by Olga Borodina; Editing by Quentin Bryar)