Tuesday January 6, 02:29 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

Japan auto sales fall to 34-year low in 2008

New vehicle sales in Japan slumped to the lowest level in three decades in 2008 as recession hit Asia s biggest economy, piling pressure on its auto giants, an industry group said on Monday. Domestic sales, excluding mini-vehicles, tumbled 6.5% from the previous year to 3.2 million units for the fifth straight annual decline, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said. It was the lowest level since 1974 in the wake of the first oil shock, when automakers had sold 3.1 million vehicles. Auto sales reached a peak of nearly 6.0 million units in 1990. It is a very serious situation, said Takeshi Fushimi, the association s director. In the throes of a kind of economic slump that occurs once in a century, consumers sentiment has rapidly cooled. The sales slump worsened towards the end of the year. In December alone sales fell 22.3% from a year earlier to 183,549 vehicles. Consumption has stalled since mid-October but we had not expected it to plunge so much, Fushimi said. He said affluent consumers continued to put off car purchases as the value of their investments in shares and foreign currencies eroded in the global financial crisis. Stagnant growth in wages has also curbed car sales to young people. AFP