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DETROIT, June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. new vehicle sales have been weaker-than-expected in June, and General Motors Corp. will have difficulty racking up a sales gain for the month, a top GM official said on Monday.
"We're a little weaker than what we expected to be in June," Paul Ballew, GM's head of sales analysis, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Light vehicle sales for the industry will total a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 16.3 million in June, down from about 16.5 million in June last year, Ballew said.
Analysts had said that they expected industry sales to be flat in June, with strong results from some Asian automakers and GM down about 5 percent.
Overall sales weakened due to a pull-forward effect from May's strong results, when sales hit an annual rate of 17.8 million, Ballew said. "We expected June to come down a little bit," he said.
Industry sales soared to their strongest levels in nine months in May due to heavy sales incentives and despite soaring gasoline prices.
GM's inventories of unsold vehicles remained unchanged in June from May at above-target levels, Ballew said. "We still have to come down about 100,000 units between now and the end of the year," he said.
He declined to comment when asked if GM would cut its vehicle production in the third quarter to help reduce inventories, but said that the automaker would have more to say on Thursday when it reports June sales.
GM shares were down $1.12, or 2.35 percent, at $46.53 in late trade on the New York Stock Exchange.