PARIS, June 3 (Reuters) - French new car sales fell 8.6 percent last month, despite signs of a broader pickup in French consumer spending, as domestic powers Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroen saw sales drop.
Sales in May fell to 186,380 vehicles from 203,831 the year beofre, carmaker committee CCFA said in a statement. On a like-for-like basis, the decline was a smaller 3.7 percent.
Sales of Renault fell 4.7 percent in the month, while those of rival PSA slumped 13.9 percent, largely due to a 19.3 percent drop at its Peugeot brand. In the first five months of the year, French car sales are down 2.7 percent.
The figures come amid signs of a pickup in French consumer spending. In April, spending in Europe's second largest economy rose 0.8 percent, according to national statistics office INSEE.