New car sales jumped 51 percent last month from the same period a year earlier as consumers took advantage of the government’s cash-for-clunkers program, the Association of European Businesses in Moscow said Wednesday.
Sales of automobiles and light trucks reached 168,627 in August, pushing the year-to-date total to 1.14 million, or 14 percent more than in the same period last year, the AEB said.
“There were some concerns that the smog in Moscow might affect the industry, but other than low showroom traffic … we have not yet seen evidence of this,” David Thomas, chairman of the AEB’s carmakers committee, said in a statement.
(Bloomberg)