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The group said the decline was principally due to poor performances in Spain, France and Italy.
Demand for new cars in the EU declined to 8.27 million units in the first eight months of the year, compared with 8.9 million in the corresponding period in 2011.
Among the EU’s biggest markets for passenger cars, Italy showed the sharpest decrease of 19.9% year-on-year, followed by France, down by 13.4% compared with January-August 2011.
Markets in Spain also contracted, with registrations down by 8.5% year-on-year in January-August 2012.
Car registrations in Germany slipped by 0.6% year-on-year in the first eight months of 2012 to 2.11 million units.
The UK was the only large market to show growth, at 3.3% year-on-year in the January-August period.