The Turkish Automotive Industry Association (OSD) has said it expects 2009 exports and production to fall 25% and domestic automotive sales to shrink 20%.
The Automotive Distributors’ Association said sales of cars and light commercial vehicles declined 38 percent year-on-year in January.
Car sales fell to 13,173 last month, while 6,433 commercial vehicles were sold, the distributors’ association said.
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“Despite the central bank’s interest rate cuts in recent months, it is expected that these cuts will not be sufficient to stimulate auto demand as long as banks do not meet consumer loan requests,” the OSD said.
The OSD predicted that the auto market would start recovering in the final quarter of 2009 under the most optimistic assumption.
The OSD called for the government measures to support consumer purchasing power and encouraging public sector buying of domestic cars and supporting exports.
Much of Turkey’s vehicle production is exported to the EU and some forecasts for the European car market envisage it declining 20% in 2009.
In 2008, total vehicle exports from Turkey rose by 11% from 820,370 to 910,270 units according to OSD figures.
