Car And Light Commercial Vehicle Market Soars By 50.3 Pct. In Q1

- Turkey's car and light commercial vehicle market soared by 50.3 percent the first quarter of the year, against in the same period of 2014, when the market shrinked due to lira depreciation and rising interest rates on consumer loans, according to the data released by the Auotomotive Distrubuters Association (ADA), on Friday.

Total car and light commercial vehicle market rose to 173 thousand units in the first quarter, up from 115 thousand units in the same period of last year.

Car sales rose by 42.13 percent to 127 thousand units in the first quarter, against 89 thousand units in the same period of 2014, while light commercial vehicle sales rose to 46 thousand units, from 26 thousand units, over the same period.

"In 2015, expectation on interest-rate increase by U.S. Federal Reserve Bank parallel with economic recovery, decision to continue with monetary expansion by European Central Bank (ECB) in order to support economic recovery, geopolitical developments, Central Bank of Turkey's determination to fight against inflation, improvement in current account deficit, structural reforms to be made and forthcoming elections will be decisive" ADA said in the statement on the market developments in the first quarter.

"We foresee that the automotive industry's total market for the year 2015 to be
between 825 and 875 thousand in quantity" it added.