Munich - The deepening global recession has hit the world's leading luxury carmakers with Germany's BMW reporting Monday nearly a 25-per-cent slump in sales last month.

On Friday, rival Mercedes-Benz Cars posted a 28-per-cent drop in February sales to 63,600 vehicles as the crisis in the world auto industry gains ground.

Munich-based BMW, which is the world leading luxury carmaker, said global sales slumped 24.4 per cent in February.

As a result, global sales for BMW, which also manufactures the compact urban Mini and super luxury Ross Royce saloons, fell to 80,453 vehicles in February.

While sales of the Mini brand declined by 27.2 per cent, the company's flagship BMW brand posted a 23.9-per-cent drop in sales during February.

BMW group sales also dropped by about 25 per cent during the first two months of the year, the company said.

The fall in Mercedes-Benz sales helped to drag down overall sales for the group's parent company, Daimler.

Stuttgart-based Daimler said it sold a total of 72,000 vehicles last month, a decline of 25 per cent from February 2008.

Sales of its subcompact smart car declined 2 per cent to 8,600, Daimler said. (dpa)