Car sales and loans hit speed bump in first half of 2000, June worst month yet

In the first six months of 2000 there was a sharp decrease of over 13% in the number of cars sold to 278,147. The worst month this year has been June, as car producers sold 23.4% less cars compared to the same period last year. It was due to the increase of fuel prices and excise duty. The small car sector is the only one in which sales increased by 1.82% since the beginning of 2000. Experts say these cars sell well, as there are more new models among them. The top three car producers remain the same: Fiat with 29% market share, Daewoo with 22.24% and Opel with 8.24%. The decrease in the number of cars sold had an effect on the turnover of four car financing banks operating in Poland. They gave only 36,300 loans in the first half of this year amounting to zl. 668.3 million, which is a decrease over last year of 29.5%. "We have nothing to be proud of, as we sold only dozens of loans," said Dariusz Kulczycki from the fifth ranked bank owned by DaimlerChrysler. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, 3, 13) M.M.