French July vehicle registrations fall; Peugeot, Volkswagen new car sales dive

PARIS (Reuters) - French vehicle registrations fell 9.6 percent in July to 132,999 units, as French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) and Germany's Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) saw new car sales tumble more than 17 percent, CCFA automobile association said on Monday.

This dented sales growth, with sales for the year to date rising 6.11 percent compared with 8.4 percent in the first six months, CCFA said, confirming similar figures published by consulting firm DataNeo earlier on Monday.

The new car sales of foreign carmakers fell 6.7 percent and those of domestic automakers were down 12.3 percent in July, CCFA said.

PSA Peugeot Citroen's new car sales fell 17.4 percent last month, while German carmaker Volkswagen, which has been caught up in a diesel emissions scandal, by 17.3 percent.

CCFA said in early July it expected the recovery in car sales to continue into the second half based on the strong demand experienced in the first half.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Nicolas Delame; Writing by Andrew Callus and Maya Nikolaeva)