ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, February 4, 1997              TAG: 9702040090
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 

IN BUSINESS

Car sales expected to decelerate this year

ATLANTA - A weakening economy and higher-than-expected inflation will lead to a modest decline in U.S. sales of new vehicles this year, the chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Association predicted Monday.

``I think there will be some surprises on the inflation front,'' Tom Webb said in his annual forecast at the group's convention here. ``Not that inflation will be bad. We'll just be surprised that it's not as good as we thought it was going to be.''

NADA's forecast is for sales of 14.7 million cars and light trucks this year, down from about 15.1 million in 1996.

For franchised dealers, the lack of growth in new-car sales will be offset by continued expansion in used-car sales, he said. He also predicted interest rates would remain stable and the availability of credit would remain good, for an overall favorable year.

Webb said franchised dealers' total pretax profits last year were about $7 billion, up 17 percent from 1995 but far behind the Big Three's $12.9 billion in net earnings after taxes.

-Associated Press

Coal production up

U.S. coal production rose 7.7 percent, from 18.5 million tons to 20 million tons in the week ended Jan. 25, the U.S. Department of Energy said Monday. The industry produced 19.7 million tons in the same week last year. Production so far this year is 71 million tons, 4 percent ahead of last year's at this time.

Virginia mines produced 644,000 that week, up from 592,000 tons the previous week but down from 698,000 in 1996.

-Associated Press

LENGTH: Short :   41 lines