HispanicBusiness

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) on Wednesday reported its best October sales in 12 years in Europe, but said both Ford and industry sales are likely to decline next year as government incentive programs end.

In October, Ford sold 121,000 new cars and trucks in Europe, a 12.8% increase compared with the same month last year.

Ford said its share of European sales was 8.8% in October, its highest monthly mark since October 1997.

This year is "to be one of the best years in the last 10 years in Europe," said Ingvar Sviggum, Ford of Europe's vice president for marketing and sales.

Ford has benefitted this year from government incentive programs and from its newest products, including the Ford Fiesta and Ka subcompacts.

While Ford's year-to-date European sales have declined 3% to 1.2 million new cars and trucks, industry sales have declined 8.1%.

In Europe, Ford is the No. 2 automaker, behind Volkswagen AG, and the Fiesta is the second highest-volume car, behind the Volkswagen Golf. The redesigned Fiesta debuted last October.

Europe's incentive programs, often called scrappage schemes, are similar to the cash-for-clunkers program that sparked sales in the United States in the summer.

Sviggum said that he expects total industry sales will top 15.7 million in Europe this year, but noted that in Germany, where a scrappage program ended in September, new vehicle registrations declined 25% in October.

Next year, industry sales will fall to a range of 13 million to 14.5 million, he said, and a recovery "depends on the underlying economy, how quick that is coming back."

On the plus side, industry sales in Russia are poised to rebound. For the first 10 months of this year, 1.2 million new vehicles were sold in Russia, a 51% decline, according to the Moscow-based Association of European Businesses.

But the value of Russia's currency, the ruble, is increasing and the economy will benefit from oil prices that are back to nearly $80 per barrel, Sviggum said.