Car sales dropped by almost 40% in August against the same monthof last year, the third largest monthly decline since the start ofthe year, amid the strong effect of the VAT increase from 19% to24%.
In August, 6,700 cars were sold in Romania, against a littleabove 8,000 in July and 14,000 units in June, the first month ofthe past two years when the car market was in the red against thesame period of 2009.
Should the trend maintain in the coming months, the second half ofthe year is likely to be even weaker than the first, which woulddetermine a market volume of below 100,000 cars, considering therewhere a little more than 51,000 units were sold in the firsthalf.
"(...) The only increases we'll still see will be registered inOctober and November when the old car scrappage scheme ends, buteven then the 10,000-car level will not be exceeded by much," saidAlin Tapalagă, general manager of Porsche Inter Auto, the retailarm of Porsche Romania, the biggest player on the market.
By September 7, almost 39,000 cars had been sold through thescrappage scheme, namely 60% of this year's new car sales.
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