New Delhi, June 1 : Buoyed by the sale of its compact car segment, global automotive major General Motors' Indian subsidiary Wednesday reported an increase of 1.3 percent in sales for the month of May at 8,329 units as compared to
8,225 units in the like period of 2010.

The growth in the company's sales comes a month after it reported a drop of 5.19 percent in sales for April at 10,050 as against the same month last year.

The company said that the growth was due to interest rate and fuel price hike, coupled with general inflation trend.

"Given the hike in interest rates, fuel prices, commodity prices, inflation, we expect the market to remain depressed in the coming months as well," said GM India vice president P. Balendran, adding that even enquiries at the company's showrooms have come down.

The segment-wise sales in May were led by the company's compact car segment -- including Spark, Beat brands -- whose sales stood at 3,023 units and 2,144 units respectively. Other compact cars like Aveo clocked a sales of 218 units, followed by 135 units of Aveo U-VA.

The company's sedan segment sales were led by Cruze with 659 units, followed by Optra at 240 units. The company's multi-utility vehicles -- Tavera and Captiva -- clocked sales of 1,767 units and 143 units, respectively.(IANS)