We have heard a lot of news over the past 12 months about the slowing economy and the effect it is having on major American automakers like Ford Motor (NYSE: F) and General Motors (NYSE: GM), but how are some smaller overseas automakers performing? As you may have guessed, the pain is not solely being felt by American automakers, and several European automakers are taking some measures to offset the slowdown. PSA Peugeot Citroen SA, France's biggest carmaker, warned it expects a decline of 4% for West European sales this year, while Fiat SpA, Italy's biggest automaker, announced it plans to shut Italian plants on concerns about soaring record oil prices and increased inflation.
Hurt by declining consumer spending, Fiat saw its sales plunging 16.5% in June. But this was not the worst and Peugeot warned about "an even greater slowdown" for European demand in the second half of the year. "The rest of the year is going to be a disaster for European manufacturers,'' Stephen Pope, London-based chief global market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe, stated in a report on Bloomberg.
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