RAYONG, Thailand — Ford says its Focus small car is on track to become the best-selling car in the world this year, trumping the Toyota Corolla.

Ford sold 489,616 Focus sedans and hatchbacks worldwide in the first half of 2011. That was almost 27,000 more than the perennial best-seller, the Toyota Corolla.

Ford made the announcement at its assembly plant in Rayong, which opened in May to build the Focus. The Thailand plant, which is one of Ford's most advanced, has the capacity to produce 150,000 cars per year for sale in Thailand, Vietnam, Australia and other countries in the region.

Ford's recently revamped Focus is sold in more than 100 countries worldwide. It's a strong seller in the U.S., where Focus sales were up 31 percent in the first half of the year compared with 2011. But the Corolla is still king in the U.S., where it outsold the Focus by nearly 27,500 in the first half of the year.

The Corolla could still top the Focus worldwide, too. Last year at this time the Focus was ahead of the Corolla, but the Corolla pulled through in the end, outselling the Focus by more than 259,000 vehicles.

At the plant Friday, Ford executives were also celebrating the production of the 350 millionth vehicle Ford has made since its founding 109 years ago.

LOS ANGELES — Shoppers hit the malls for back-to-school shopping in August and handed retailers a healthy boost despite continued worries about the job market and a sluggish economy.Major chain stores posted a 3.6 percent sales increase in August compared with the same month a year earlier, outpacing analysts' expectations of a 2 percent rise, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 16 retailers.“Consumer spending increased for the first time in three months,” said Chris Christopher, an economist at IHS Global Insight, “providing evidence that after hunkering down for two consecutive months there are signs of life on the consumer front.”Top performers were a mixture of high- and low-end stores. Luxury department store Nordstrom led the way with a strong 21 percent jump. San Francisco-based Gap continued to show signs of a turnaround by posting a 9 percent increase. Discounters fared well, with off-price retailers Ross Stores and TJX both reporting a strong 8 percent increase. Limited Brands, parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, also saw sales rise 8 percent.