Sales of passenger cars in Europe will fall in 2003 and next year as slowing economic growth in Germany and France cuts consumer demand, Bloomberg News reported, citing Autopolis, a London-based market research company.
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The report said that Autopolis predicts sales will fall 5.7% this year to 13.6 million units and will decline 2.5% next year, before a recovery in 2005.
“The weakness in Germany is likely to continue for at least another year, and that will hurt growth in other countries, which will hurt car sales,” Autopolis managing director Graeme Maxton said, according to Bloomberg News.
The news agency noted that European car sales have declined in the wake of rising unemployment that has discouraged consumers from buying new cars and that car sales in the first four months dropped 3.4% from a year ago.
