Brazil Auto Sales Rise 51% in December, Dealers Say
Bloomberg, Jan 05, 2010
Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s new vehicle sales increased 51 percent to 293,030 in December as tax breaks and a rebound in consumer lending lured customers, the country’s dealership federation said.
Passenger cars and light truck sales in December climbed 51 percent to 277,944, while buses and trucks gained 42 percent to 15,086, said Fenabrave, as the group is known. For the year, passenger cars and light truck sales rose 13 percent to 3.01 million, while sales of buses and trucks fell 12 percent to 131,744, Fenabrave said.
General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. plan to invest a combined 14.2 billion reais ($8.3 billion) in coming years to increase production capacity and develop products in Latin America’s largest economy. Brazil’s vehicle sales may rise 10 percent in 2010, Fenabrave estimates.
Last year “ended in a very reasonable way,” said Sergio Reze, Fenabrave’s president. “Our expectation is that in 2010 we recover all we lost and still have positive growth.”
Brazil’s economy will grow 5.2 percent this year, the most since 2007, according to a weekly central bank survey published yesterday. The country’s gross domestic product probably shrank 0.24 percent in 2009, according to the survey.