India car sales shrink

Sales of India's once-booming passenger car segment shrank for a second year, hit by a sharp economic slowdown and high borrowing costs that kept customers away from showrooms, data showed Friday. The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said it hoped for a "moderate improvement" this year with a new government due to take power after marathon elections in the country of 1.2 billion that began this week. Passenger car sales contracted by 4.59 per cent in the last financial year to March 2014 over the previous year to 2.3 million units. Total commercial vehicles such as trucks and goods carriers slid by 16 per cent, mirroring economic growth at a decade-low of 5.0 per cent, according to AFP.