European Car Sales Rise 4.7% in December

Car sales in the European Union rose in 2014 for the first time in six years, according to the industry trade association ACEA.

Sales were up 5.7% to 12,550,771, fuelled by government scrappage schemes and wholesale orders from companies.

There was also a shift in sales to cheaper brands, with Dacia and Skoda reporting some of the biggest sales rises.

Spain and the UK saw a sales jump in 2014, up 18% and 9.3% respectively.

The ACEA said in a statement that in December sales rose 4.7% year-on-year, the 16th consecutive monthly rise.

However, the industry remains cautious about growth this year, as many incentive schemes and tax breaks are being ended.

Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan-Renault, said this week at the Detroit Motor Show that he expects European growth this year to be slow, at around 1%-2%.

Peter Fuss, an automotive analyst at business services group E&Y, said in a research note on Friday that he expected 2015 sales to be about 3% higher.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza