(August 27, 2015) Volkswagen's worldwide sales are off slightly during the period from January through July compared to the same time last year, Volkswagen reported this week. Sales from January to July this year totaled 5.83 million compared to 5.89 million in 2014, a 1 percent decline.

In July, the VW group sold 792,100 compared to 822,200 in July 2014, a 3.7 percent decline.

"The overall economic situations in China, Russia and Brazil continue to be tense. At the beginning of the second half of the year, the Volkswagen Group was not entirely immune from these developments. To a certain extent, we did experience a tailwind in North America and especially in Europe," Group board member for sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg on Tuesday.

"In the second half of the year, we expect the patchy development of markets to remain a key factor in the various regions," Klingler added.

On the overall European market, Group brands delivered 2.45 million units, an improvement of 3.7 percent over last year. Deliveries in North America continued to grow, reaching 533,000 for the first seven months of the year, a 6.2 percent improvement from the  501,900 sold in 2014.

These included 349,000 vehicles delivered in the U.S, a 3.4 percent increase. The situation in South America, where the Volkswagen Group delivered 346,400 units from January to July — down 22.9 percent — remained tense. While deliveries in Argentina once again rose, there was a fall 30.6 percent in Brazil.

In the Asia-Pacific sales region, 2.22 million vehicles were delivered to customers in the period to July. As market leader, the Volkswagen Group was not immune to the continuing downturn in China, delivering 1.99 million units in its largest single market, down 5.3 percent from last year.