News digest.

Italy and France fall

New-car sales in Italy fell for the third month in succession in March. Sales were down 18.4 percent, to 205,500.

Italian sales declined 13 percent in the first quarter. Most forecasters had expected a 9 percent fall this year from last year's record 2.43 million units. But the Centro Studi Promotor research center now predicts a 13.4 percent decline this year to just 2.1 million.

Meanwhile, French new-car sales declined 5.6 percent in March to 198,459 and 2.6 percent in the quarter to 563,612 from the same periods a year earlier.

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