
Sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in Russia decreased by 33% in January 2009, according to data released today.
A report from the Association of European Businesses (AEB) showed a total of 116,899 cars were sold in January, including imported and Russian vehicles, down from 174,488 in January 2008 and 44.5% down from 210,293 in December.
Among the top 10 bestselling models in January 2009, eight were produced in Russia.
“This is the first time we are starting the year with a negative result after a long period of stable sales growth in Russia,” said David Thomas, AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee chairman.
“The combination of a global downturn and restricted availability of credit are clearly having an impact on the Russian market.”
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By GlobalDataThe AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee’s forecast for 2009, on passenger cars and the LCV market has been updated to 1.9m, AEB said, which would be a significant fall on the 3.2m sold in 2008.
Martin Jahn, vice chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee said: “January result is not an indication of the market trend for the whole year, because in January, the sales are normally slower; however the earlier announced forecast of the AEB AMC has to be revised.”