Bankruptcy threatens for domestic producers unless car market improves

The outlook for the new car market in Poland remains bleak, despite a slight increase in sales in October. Poles bought 288,400 new cars in the first ten months of the year, a fall of nearly 32% from the same period of 2000, although 2,500 more cars were bought last month. "All the signs indicate that in the coming months the situation will worsen again, with growing uncertainty about the economy and import rules, and with interest rates still high," said head of market research agency Samar, Wojciech Drzewiecki. He also predicted that if the situation does not improve, some domestic producers will go bankrupt. It is not clear whether the proposed import tax would help domestic producers. The tax would increase the price of not only imported cars but also those made in Poland, since domestic auto-makers use large quantities of components from abroad. (Puls Biznesu, p. 9; Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) M.K.