Greece’s June car sales slide amid European rebound
Greece suffered the sharpest drop in new car registrations among Western European car markets in June, falling 21.6 percent year-on-year amid political uncertainty in the runup to the country’s bailout referendum, industry data showed on Monday.
Official figures for Greece will not be provided until Friday, but data from consultancy LMC Automotive showed that sales fell to 6,247 new vehicles in June.
By contrast, registrations in Western Europe rose 14.3 percent to 1.31 million.
“Despite growing concerns over Greece’s future in the eurozone and the implications for the currency union, the car market in Western Europe grew strongly in June and in the first half of the year,” LMC Automotive analyst Emiliano Lewis said.
Though fleet renewals by car rental companies had caused Greek auto registrations to jump 43 percent in April, that masked the longer-term downward trend.
Registrations of new passenger cars in Greece fell 73.5 percent last year, following a 78.3 percent decline in 2013, the Greek Association of Motor Vehicle Importers Representatives said, adding that demand between January and May had fallen by about 70 percent.
[Reuters]
