August local car sales up 33.2%; moderation seen

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Car sales in India rose by a third in August to a record high as a booming economy pushed more buyers to open their purse strings, but growth is expected to moderate in coming months.

Demand in India, one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world, is expected to peak ahead of the festive season in early November when most workers get their annual bonuses.

Companies, led by Maruti Suzuki, a unit of Japan's Suzuki Motor Co, sold 160,794 cars in August, up 33.2% from a year earlier, data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed on Thursday.

It was the highest-ever monthly sales, the industry body said.

Sales of trucks and buses, a barometer of economic activity and led by Tata Motors , rose 28.1 percent to 52,030 units, while motorcycles sales climbed 19 percent to 727,542 units.

The automobile sector in india grew 35%, on average, in the first four months of the current fiscal year, data from SIAM has showed previously.

The blistering pace of growth is unsustainable, analysts have cautioned, with a possible rise in interest rates and supply bottlenecks being potential dampeners.

Still, auto sales are likely to rise further as Asia's third-largest economy is expected to grow 8.5 percent this fiscal year.