New vehicle sales in Thailand declined by 17.4% to 108,688 units in December from 108,688 units in the same month of the previous year, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
The numbers brought to an end a dismal year for the country’s automotive industry, in which political upheaval dragged economic growth down to below 1%.
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Full-year sales fell by 33.4% to 881,832 units in 2014, from 1,325,079 units in the previous year.
The market last year was also negatively affected by the withdrawal of first-time buyer incentives at the end of 2012.
The FTI expects vehicle sales in 2015 to bounce back to around 1m units, as the domestic economy recovers from last year’s near-recession. Toyota is more cautious, forecasting sales to rise by slightly more than 4% to 920,000 units.
Last year, vehicle production in the country fell by 23.5% to 1.88m units, while exports were flat at 1.12m units.
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