02/07/2008 11:54. TOKYO: Mazda Motor Corp led a drop in domestic auto sales in June, as rising costs for gasoline and food lowered demand for new cars.

Sales of cars, trucks and buses fell 3.6% to 281,261 from a year earlier, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said in a statement yesterday. The total excludes minicars.

Household spending in Japan fell 3.2% in May, the most since September 2006. Gasoline prices rose to a record 173 yen a litre (US$6.06 a gallon) in June, according to the Tokyo-based Oil Information Centre.

People simply don't have the money to buy right now,'' said Daisuke Shimazu, an investment manager at Sumitomo Trust Banking Co in Tokyo.

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