Off the wire
• Survival rates for extremely preterm infants improve in U.S.: study  • Israeli president slams EU initiative to label products from Jewish settlements  • Suicide incidents increased in Bangladesh: WHO  • Rwanda seeks extradition of key genocide suspect from US  • Latvian consumer prices rise 0.1 pct in August  • Roundup: France hands Cyprus controversial list of HSBC depositors  • Spain's housing sales rise by 13.9 pct in July  • Schengen under threat if EU fails to reach common migration policy: UN official  • Kenya plans long-term strategy to flush out Al-Shabaab in coast  • Baltimore to compensate Freddie Gray's family for 6.4 million dollars  
You are here: 　 Home

Car sales on decline in Russia

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sales of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in Russia has been on decline since the start of the year, said a report from Association of European Businesses (AEB), an industry guild, Tuesday.

According to the AEB, which groups more than 600 companies in Europe and Russia, more than 1 million cars were sold in the first eight months of the year, 33.5 percent down from the same period last year. In August alone, Russia saw a drop of 19.4 percent in sales of new cars and LCVs in comparison with the same period last year.

"The pace of year-on-year sales decline slowed down further in August, suggesting the market is moving closer to finding some sort of equilibrium at a new, lower level," said Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the AEB Automobile Manufacturers Committee.

Still, Schreiber said that time is still needed for the equilibrium to settle considering currency fluctuations.

"Currency fluctuations still have an enormous impact on day-to-day consumer behavior and demand for high-value goods like cars," Tass news agency quoted Schreiber as saying.

He predicted that latest sharp drop in the value of Russian ruble would lead to the "roller coaster" of car sales.

The exchange rate of ruble to U.S. dollar is falling beyond 65 and the rate of ruble to euro falls beyond 75, while the Russian currency only plummeted once at the end of last year. Enditem