BMW posts slump in quarterly earnings amid rising costs

The world’s leading luxury carmaker, BMW, posted a slump in second-quarter profits on Thursday as the costs of launching new models offset a rise in global sales. Group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell 8.8 per cent, to 2.07 billion euros (2.75 billion dollars), in the three months to the end of June, compared with 2.27 billion euros in the same period last year, the Munich-based company quoted by dpa as saying in a statement. This was despite a 6.6-per-cent rise in world deliveries. Analysts had expected earnings to fall to 2.06 billion euros. Quarterly earnings from the company’s core car operations, which includes its flagship BMW brand, compact urban Mini and top-of-the-range Rolls Royce, dropped 13 per cent to 1.76 billion euros.