German new car sales jumped 23 percent in 2009 but began to slow in December after a car scrapping scheme expired, figures released on Tuesday by the VDA auto federation showed.

Through the year, 3.8 million vehicles were registered in Germany, the biggest European car market, which the VDIK association of foreign auto manufacturers said was the highest level since 1992.

In the other hand, car registrations fell five percent in December 2009 from the same month a year earlier to 215,400 vehicles.

Sales of small cars in particular were boosted last year by a car scrapping premium worth a total of five billion euros (7.2 billion dollars), part of a broad government stimulus programme aimed at pulling Germany out of recession which the scheme ended in September 2009.

This year, VDA forecast sales would fall to between 2.75-3.0 million.

German auto production fell 10 percent last year to 3.41 million vehicles, while exports were down by 17 percent, the VDA figures showed.

Exports have nonetheless begun to pick up and continued to progress in December, the association said, gaining 23 percent from December 2008 to 276,900 units.

A total of 68 percent of all cars produced in Germany last year were sold abroad and "we expect this trend to continue in the coming months," VDA president Matthias Wissmann was quoted as saying.

Source: AFP