Maruti Suzuki Ltd (MSIL), India’s largest car maker is hoping the forthcoming festival season to boost car sales in India from the first week of September 2011. The auto giant had set a growth target of 10-12 per cent in the beginning of 2011-12, but had to trim down its sales target due to sagging car sales in India and now expects only a single digit growth for this fiscal year. High interest rate and rising fuel costs have resulted in a steep decline in the demand of the car sales in the April-July period of this fiscal year. The exports are also on a decline because of the financial turmoil in the European market.
Mr. Shashank Srivastav, Chief General Manager, MSIL, stated that the car sales are expected to recover in early September 2011. He said that the turnaround will be slow as the interest rates are not expected to be reduced. The initial growth target of 10-12 per cent for 2011-12 has now been reduced to a single digit growth estimation. Maruti Suzuki for 2010-11 sold 11,80,000 cars across all its models in India and sold 3,17,000 cars in the first four month. The company which exported 1,50,000 vehicles in 2010-11, expects its export sales to remain the same in 2011-12. The company is hoping to sell 17,000 units of the new Swift per month.
