Sergio Marchionne Remains Pessimistic About European Market

Fiat-Chrysler Group’s CEO Sergio Marchionne has announced that the car manufacturer’s 2011 profit targets “for now,” in an attempt to dispel concerns about a weak European market, slowing US economy and share drop that has almost cut in half the companies market capitalization, according to Automotive News. Marchionne said that the US market is going well, but he was not so optimistic about the European market and the Italian sales. He also mentioned that Fiat’s domestic market is at its lowest since 1996.

"We won't be reviewing 2011 targets until we close the third quarter. For now, we confirm the targets. The stock going down has no link with the financing that we are getting,"Sergio Marchionne was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source. The car manufacturer, which owns 53.5 percent of Chrysler has managed to pull one of the most spectacular turnaround stories. Just like other car manufacturers, Fiat has been hit by worries that a global economic slowdown will hurt its revenues.

“The U.S. market continues to go well. We had already forecast that it would head toward 12.7 million cars, we never expected it to go beyond 13 million cars like others did. So for us the outlook is totally in line," Sergio Marchionne as the source cites.

He further explained that the global economy was "very far" from a recession, but remained pessimistic about Europe. "The European market will go down in 2011 and I don't see it doing well in 2012," the CEO reportedly said.