MADRID: Sales of new cars in Spain plunged 49.6 percent in November from the equivalent figure last year to 63,068 vehicles owing to sudden slowdown of the economy, official automaker figures showed on Monday. "This decline brushes on the biggest monthly drop in the history of the car market," the Spanish automobile manufacturers' association ANFAC said in a statement. "Restrictions on access to credit, together with the continued loss of jobs and the lower income available to families is keeping consumer confidence levels at a minimum, limiting the sale of vehicles," it added. New car sales dropped 40 percent in October over the month last year. During the first 11 months of the year new car sales dropped 26 percent over the same year-ago period to 1,470,394 vehicles. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's socialist government earmarked 800 million euros (one billion dollars) of the 11-billion-euro economic stimulus package which it unveiled last week to the country's ailing auto makers, who are also suffering a sharp fall in demand from the rest of Europe. afp
