M&M sees bumpy road ahead, says car sales will be dull

Amid spiralling interest rates, auto remains one of the most beaten down spaces. In agreement to the same, Pawan Goenka, president of the automotive sector at M&M said while rising interest rate remains a concern for the auto and tractor segments, passenger vehicles too might see sluggish growth going forward.

"For FY12, our growth target stands at 11-13%," he said. However, he quickly added that he saw good growth in tractor sales.

Below is an edited transcript of Pawan Goenka's exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Udayan Mukherjee and Mitali Mukherjee. Also watch the accompanying video.

Q: The market is keen to know what exactly is the trend on the tractor side of the business. Are you confident that you can do that 12-13% volume growth from the trend that you have seen?

A: The tractor business is looking very good right now. We had projected about 11-13% growth beginning of the year. In the first four months, we were ahead of that forecast at about 15-16% and given that monsoon and crop sowing have been very good, we don