FRANKFURT, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG , Europe's largest carmaker, posted sharply lower nine-month earnings on Wednesday that missed market expectations but stuck to its outlook for the full year.
Weak demand in its key European, U.S. and South American markets combined with an ageing product range pushed nine-month pre-tax profit 20 percent lower to 2.974 billion euros ($2.93 billion) against market expectations of around 3.239 billion euros.
Revenues dropped 1.5 percent in the first nine months to 65.269 billion euros. Sales growth has been hampered by a fall in demand for the firm's best-selling Golf model, which is due to be replaced next year.
The German carmaker repeated it expected full year pre-tax profit to be around four billion euros. It did not immediately break out third quarter earnings.