Decreasing Rate of Auto Sales Slows in January

The decrease rate of auto sales is found to slow in January.

The Ministry of Strategy and Economy said Saturday that domestic sales of locally product vehicles decreased 11.5 percent during the first 15 days of January from a year earlier, less than the fall of 23.8 percent in December and the 27.7 percent fall in November.

The ministry has been paying keen attention in whether the slowed fall of vehicle sales was ascribed to the outcome of cutting individual excise tax on cars from Dec. 19.

The government cut the individual excise tax on cars with an engine capacity of 1,000-2,000cc from 5 percent to 3.5 percent and on those with an engine capacity of more than 2,000cc from 10 percent to 7 percent.

“It’s still difficult to say that the slowed decreasing sale of vehicles was due to cut of individual excise tax as the statistics are for 15 days as it is a little different from monthly figure,” an official said in a cautious manner.

Meanwhile, the credit card use increased 8.3 percent in terms of domestic approval during the first 15 days of this year from a year earlier, a slightly lower than the 9.1 percent growth seen in a month earlier. During the same period, output of department stores rose 4 percent from a year earlier, that of discount stores 7.6 percent and that of gasoline jumped 17.5 percent, indicating the sign of economic recovery.

The ministry earlier forecast that the sales of consumer goods would continue to decrease by a large margin in January.