New car registrations in Germany rose year on year in May but not by much, the head of the VDA auto industry association, Bernd Gottschalk, said on Wednesday.
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“We have a plus sign, even if it is not very large,” he told an industry seminar, according to Reuters.
The news agency noted he did not separately give the May figures, but said new car registrations in Europe’s biggest car market had risen around 2% in the first five months after rising just 1% to 1.08m vehicles in the first four months.
Reuters said analysts expect 2006 car sales in Germany to stagnate for the seventh consecutive year, despite a push from customers who want to buy before value-added tax (VAT) rates rise by three percentage points at the start of 2007.
Domestic demand still lacks a solid basis, Gottschalk said. “We do not have the upturn that one would have wished,” he said, citing consumer uncertainty amid high fuel prices and Germany’s chronic unemployment problem.
“The uncertainty that still marks consumer behaviour has to be reduced soon, or else the pull-forward effect of higher VAT rates could be less than thought,” Gottschalk said, according to Reuters.
The report added that the VDA has forecast new car registrations will inch up to 3.35m units this year from 3.34m in 2005.
