VW Continues To See Business Pick Up In Europe

BERLIN (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen increased sales at its core passenger-car brand by 4 percent in July as higher deliveries in Europe and China offset declines in the Americas.

Sales of VW brand-badged cars and sport-utility vehicles rose to 491,600 last month, compared with 472,800 a year ago, Wolfsburg-based VW said on Tuesday. Seven-month sales were up 3.8 percent to 3.56 million vehicles.

Europe has been a difficult market for automakers over the past few years, but recently conditions have begun to improve.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan)