New vehicle sales in Thailand fell by 30.4% to 73,799 units in June, from 106,033 units a year earlier, according to data released by the Federation of Thai Industries.
The decline reflects the delayed effects of the withdrawal of the government’s first-time buyer incentives at the end of 2012 as well as the effects on the economy of the country’s political crisis.
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Cumulative first-half sales fell by 40.5% to 440,911 units, compared with 739,046 units in the same period of last year.
First-half production of built-up vehicles declined by 28.95% to 952,685 units, while exports increased by just 3.6% to 560,047 units in the same period – helped by rising order from Europe and North America.
The FTI in its latest forecast report expects full-year output to decline by over 10% to 2.2m vehicles, from 2.4m in 2013, due mainly to weakness in domestic demand. The Thai market is expected to stabilise in the second half of 2014 as year-on-year comparisons improve.
