The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, on Thursday reported 9.95 per cent decline in sales during December last year at 56,293 units against 62,515 units in the same month of 2007.

The domestic sales stood at 52,029 units compared with 58,401 units in the same month a year ago, down by 10.91 per cent, the company said in a statement.

Exports, however, grew by 3.65 per cent at 4,264 units against 4,114 units in the corresponding month the previous year.

Sales of its once bread and butter model M800 dipped by 59.57 per cent at 2,907 units against 7,190 units in 2007.

The A2 segment (comprising A-Star, Alto, Zen Estilo, Swift and WagonR) sales stood at 36,831 units against 39,575 units a year ago, registering a decline of 6.93 per cent.

The company, however, managed to post a robust growth of 98.24 per cent in the A3 segment (consisting of SX4, Swift DZire and Esteem) at 6,524 units against 3,291 units last year.

Continuing with southward trend, the company's total passenger car sales dipped by 11.15 per cent to 51,612 units in December 2008 against 58,090 units in the previous year.