German car sales headed for highest growth in six years

[BERLIN] German car sales are headed for the highest growth in about six years in 2016, the country's auto industry association said on Friday, after registrations kept growing in November.

New car sales in Europe's largest auto market increased to 276,500 vehicles last month, the VDA association said, with eleven-month registrations up five per cent to 3.09 million.

Germany's car market may grow five per cent this year to almost 3.4 million autos, the highest level since the start of the decade, VDA said, citing good economic development, high employment and favorable financing conditions.

In May, VDA had predicted a three per cent increase in 2016 registrations to 3.3 million autos.

The Berlin-based lobby, whose members include major groups Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, expects no weakening in 2017 registrations.

"For the coming year we expect a similarly high market volume," VDA president Matthias Wissmann said in written remarks prepared for delivery at a press conference.

REUTERS