Western Europe car sales rose 8 percent in April - LMC Automotive

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Western European car sales rose 8 percent year-on-year in April, although sales momentum has slowed, auto industry data provided by LMC Automotive showed on Friday. Monthly car sales rose to 1,213,990 vehicles, according to LMC Automotive estimates, which are based on national registration data and LMC's own forecasts. "Taking account of at least one extra selling day in many markets, the selling rate dropped some way from the lofty high of the previous month," LMC Automotive analyst Emiliano Lewis said. "The latest result suggests that March benefited from a quarter-end sales push with some resulting negative impact on April." Sales in Spain and Italy rose 21.2 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively, LMC data showed. Sales in Germany were up 8.4 percent, while sales in the United Kingdom rose 2 percent, LMC said. LMC said its estimates project seasonally adjusted new registrations in Western Europe would reach 13,185,151 this year, up 5.3 percent from a year earlier. (Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Mark Potter)