New Delhi, Nov 1 (IANS): Festive demand and sops announced by the government to help the crisis-hit auto sector helped the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki post positive growth in October, the first month in the current fiscal.

The carmaker sold a total of 1,44,277 units (inclusive of OEM sales) during October, 2019 in the domestic market recording a 4.5 per cent growth over the same month a year ago.

While it witnessed decline in sales of mini cars such as Alto and S-Presso, the compact segment including New WagonR, Celerio, Ignis, Swift, Baleno and Dzire posted a healthy growth of 16 per cent year-on-year.

Total sales including exports increased by 4.5 per cent in October to 1,53,435 units.

"Maruti Suzuki India Ltd sold a total of 1,53,435 units in October 2019. This includes 1,41,550 units in the domestic market, 2,727 units of domestic OEM sales and 9,158 units of exports," the company said in a press statement.

Industry experts had expected the volume decline of automobile companies to be lower in the month of October due to heavy discount by carmakers, festive demand and measures announced by the government to boost the economy.

"We expect the auto sales cycle to witness a gradual recovery due to the confluence of factors such as increasing discounts, better rural sentiment, lower interest rates, higher government spending and a possible introduction of the scrappage policy," brokerage firm Emkay had said.

Automobile has been one of the worst-hit sectors and has been reporting negative growth month after month. It has witnessed closure of hundreds of retail outlets across the country and retrenchment across the supply chain in the last one year as manufacturers resorted to production cuts.