GM sees global industry sales growth of 2.5 percent

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N) said on Wednesday that it expects global auto industry sales to grow 2.5 percent to 72 million vehicles in 2008, driven by sales increases in emerging markets.

GM earlier said its global sales fell 5 percent in the second quarter, hurt by a 20 percent decline in North America.

The automaker trailed Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp(7203.T) in global vehicle sales decisively through the first half of the year.

(Reporting by David Bailey, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)