EUROPEAN car sales are expected to 'partly recover' during the second half of the year before returning to growth in 2003.

The prediction comes as new figures show sales for the first half of this year have fallen by 4.5% when compared to the same period last year.

Figures produced by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) show sales in Western Europe between January and June totalled 7,756,79o units, down from 8,125,729 for the same period the previous year.

For June, sales were down by 8% from 1,386,359 in 2001 to 1,275,692 for June this year.

ACEA said: 'With regard to national situations, Germany (+1.8%) posted an encouraging result in June, while only three other countries ended the month with positive figures: Denmark (+9.6%), Finland (+4.8%) and Luxembourg (+0.6%).

'All the other countries reported a decrease, ranging from –3.7% in the United Kingdom (which had been on a growing trend since October 2000) to –17.4% in Spain. Five countries ended the first semester with positive figures: Denmark (+12.6%), the UK (+6.2%), Luxembourg (+4.8%), Finland (+4.1%) and Belgium (+1.2%).'