Mark Fields also said he hopes prior Federal Reserve rate cuts would begin to support the economy in the second half of the year, and that the U.S. government would take a look at tax rates as part of an economic stimulus package.
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co <F.N> expects a challenging first half of 2008 for all automakers in the United States with a drop in industrywide retail sales, Ford's North American president said on Monday.
Mark Fields also said he hopes prior Federal Reserve rate cuts would begin to support the economy in the second half of the year, and that the U.S. government would take a look at tax rates as part of an economic stimulus package.
"The first half of the year is going to be cautious. We all know what's going on in the economy and we can't close our eyes to that, but we shouldn't talk ourselves into a recession," Fields told reporters at the Detroit auto show.
Fields said Ford expects U.S. industrywide sales to range from 15.5 million to 16.0 million at a seasonally adjusted annual rate during the first half. That figure includes about 300,000 of heavy sales.
!ADVERTISEMENT!"I hope they (Bush administration) really take a strong look at that (tax rates) ... combined with interest rate cuts that could be a really potent package," Fields said.
(Reporting by Nick Carey and David Bailey, editing by Mark Porter and Dave Zimmerman)
