Auto sales jump 90 pct in January

ISTANBUL

The combined sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles soared 90 percent on an annual basis in January, following the 16 percent rise in the previous month.

A total of 27,273 vehicles were sold on the local market in January, data from the Automotive Distributors’ Association (ODD) showed yesterday.

The passenger car market saw a staggering 100 percent increase in sales on an annual basis to a little more than 22,000 units, while light commercial vehicle sales jumped 55 percent from a year ago to some 5,300 units.

In 2019, Turkey’s automotive industry contracted 23 percent compared with the previous year.

Last year a total of 479,000 units of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were sold versus 621,000 units in 2018.

Passenger car sales declined 20 percent to 387,000 units and light commercial vehicle sales fell 32 percent to 92,000, according to data from the ODD.

The association said in a statement yesterday that it expected total auto sales on the local market to be between 575,000 and 625,000 units in 2020, a revision from the ODD’s previous estimate of sales between 525,000 to 575,000 units for this year.

A recent survey showed that consumer sentiment improved in January.

The consumer confidence index increased by 0.1 percent in the month from December 2019, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) reported on Jan. 23.

Apparently, lower borrowing costs also boosted sales in the auto sector.

Data from the Central Bank showed that interest rates on car loans have been hovering around 14 percent since November 2019.

In September 2019, interest rates on car loans stood at around 20 percent but they declined gradually to 13.8 percent at the end of December. At the end of January, the respective rates were 14.2 percent.