Renault cut its 2009 sales target and pledged further cost-cutting in anticipation of a tougher European market after announcing a better-than-expected operating margin in the first half of the year.

France’s second largest carmaker said it would report a 2008 operating margin of 4.5 per cent, up from 3.6 per cent in 2007, while warning that “worsening economic conditions would make this milestone more difficult to attain”.