UPDATE 1AUTOSHOWUS auto sales not as weak as some forecastsGM
(Adds details from Wagoner discussion, background)
GENEVA, March 4 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
Chief Executive Rick Wagoner on Tuesday said U.S. auto sales
have been weak in the first two months of the year, but have
not approached the extremes of some forecasts.
“I think it is fair to say that it has been a little better
than some of the doomsday people are thinking,” Wagoner told
reporters on the sidelines of the Geneva auto show.
He said GM, the largest U.S. car maker, had not made any
radical changes to its spending plans and was ready to react
should the market weaken or fail to recover.
GM on Monday reported a 16 percent decline in U.S. sales in
February and trimmed its second-quarter production plans.
Overall, the largest U.S. automaker expects U.S. sales to
recover in the second half of the year, but has not been
building “a whole bunch of inventory” in anticipation of a
rebound, Wagoner said.
GM’s forecast stands in contrast to that of several
analysts and Chrysler President Jim Press, who said the
expectation of a U.S. car industry rebound later in 2008 was
“wishful thinking.”
Still, Wagoner said the U.S. auto industry feels like it
has been in a recession for a while, with the main question
being how long it will last for the industry.
On a broad economic front, Wagoner pointed to U.S. jobs
creation as still pretty good and the government stimulus plans
and Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Continued…
