Car sales continue to plummet in August, no recovery predicted this year

Car sales continue to plummet in August, no recovery predicted this year According to auto industry monitoring agency Samar, up until the end of August car retailers sold 357,000 cars, which is 17% less than in 1999. The sales of new domestically produced cars was one-third lower than a year ago but sales of imported cars was up by one-fifth. These are cars mainly from the European Union (EU). The EU car producers sell 31% of all new cars in Poland and 5% of imported cars sold in Poland are from outside the EU. The main reason for the sagging car sales is the growing fuel prices and more expensive loans. "I anticipate that until the end of the year, sales will be 19-20% lower, which will give a total of 520,000 cars," said Samar head Wojciech Drzewiecki. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 19)