There were signs in March of a further thawing in Southern Europe’s frozen car markets with both the Italian and Spanish markets turning in positive growth.
Data from Spanish trade association ANFAC shows that sales in Spain last month were up by 10% on last year, helped by a government backed scrappage incentive scheme. The Spanish economy has now begun expanding though the government’s PIVE scheme continues to be implemented due to the current fragility of the market.
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In Italy, ANFIA data showed that new car registrations in March were up 5% to 139,337 units, taking first quarter car sales up to 376,519 units, some 5.8% ahead of last year.
The positive market data will be welcome, though both countries’ car markets are recovering from a low base. Italy’s car market has fallen from 2.2m units in a ‘normal’ year to just 1.3m in 2013, while Spain’s car market has fallen well under a million units.
However, analysts will hope that the positive trend in these markets reflects a gradually improving economic situation and a return of buyers to the market after they have held off from replacing cars while economic gloom persisted.
Car sales were also up in France during the month of March.
