AEB: Russia’s car, LCV sales drop 15% to 107,700 units in May

MOSCOW, Jun 8 (PRIME) -- Sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCV) in Russia decreased 14.5% on the year to 107,700 units in May, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said in a report on Wednesday.

In January–May, sales fell 14.7% on the year to 548,119 units.

“Total sales result in May demonstrates that the road towards market stabilization remains bumpy. As the car market keeps struggling, the macroeconomic picture gives reason for cautious optimism: The prevailing view among the experts appears to be that the country’s economy has passed the low point, and that the outlook until the end of this year is stable at least, or even positive moving into 2017,” Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee, said.

“Such perspective is encouraging of course, but yet has to materialize in consumers’ minds before it can translate into growing confidence and purchase activity. For now, patience remains the order of the day.”

Sales of Russia’s largest car producer AvtoVAZ fell 10% on the year to 20,597 units in May. In January–May, the company’s sales decreased 11% to 102,124 units, AEB said.

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