GM to halt production at Russian plant for 2 months

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Troubled U.S. automaker General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK (GM.N) said on Monday it would halt car production at its Russian plant in St Petersburg for two months due to poor demand.

"Having carefully studied the state of the Russian car market...we took the decision not to force this year an increase in production volumes at our Russian plant," the company said in a statement, adding that production will be halted from July 1 to August 31.

The announcement comes as the factory was due to restart work after a 20-day planned stoppage to prepare it for the production of a new model.

Car sales in Russia were down 58 percent year-on-year in May, as the country's first recession in a decade prompts consumers to tighten their belts and made banks less willing to hand out loans for new vehicles.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk, Writing by Toni Vorobyova)