Whereas recession has now spread across most of Europe, April new car sales in the region are unexpectedly up year-on-year for the first time since… August 2011 (!) at +2% to 1,086,501 registrations. Year-to-date, the market is still down 7% on 2012 at 4,190,447 units. According to Bloomberg, the Euro zone economy is forecast to stagnate in the 3 months through June and return to growth in the third quarter, so this might signal the start of a revival of the car market, especially as governments are starting to implement measures to boost sales. However, Autonews says there is no reason to rejoice as April sales were flattered by two extra days in many European markets after Easter holidays fell in March, with last year’s weak April also helping the year-on-year comparison. So this may not be the end of the tunnel after all.
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