Romania automobile sales dropped by 2% in first five months of 2008

Luni, 16 iunie 2008, 19:32 English | Business

After long streak of significant growth rates, the automobile market in Romania starts to drop steadily. In the first five months of the year, car sales dropped by 1.6% to 114,000 units while commercial vehicles hold the market on the floating line with an advance of 32%, the Association of Automobile Producers and Importers shows.

Overall, some 140,000 cars sold across Romania between January and May this year, a 3.6% increase as compared to the same period last year. Among these, 114,000 were cars, 24,000 commercial cars and 2,000 busses.

In the first five months of the year, automobile exports grew by 21% while the internal production increased by 6% and imports by 11%. Romanian-made car sales dropped by 21.5% in the first five months of the year from 45,000 units to 35,000.

Dacia continues to hold the best quota on the market with 28% followed by Skoda with 9%, Renault 7.4% and Volkswagen with 7.1%.