According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' forecast comes at a time when passenger car sales has showed an upward tick in March this year by 19.66 percent from a year ago period. The March sales witnessed another interest aspect. The car sales is steadily increasing in the country for the fifth concecutive month. At the same time, sales growth declined to 2.19 percent for the full year to March 31, 2012 a major slump from a robust 29 pecent rise posted in the previous financial year.
What is more, the declined growth, which is the slowest in three years, had a cascading effect for the first few months as rising fuel prices, coupled with gallopping interest rates, subsequently pusing up loan costs, forced the potential buyers to defer the purchase. Car sales for 2011-12 was pegged at 2.02 million units in the country, which has population in excess of 1.2 billion people.
Vishnu Mathur, Director General, SIAM pointed out: "Indian car market should bounce back this year with the Reserve Bank of India likely to rollback the rate increase as there is a perceptible drop in inflation. The number of car owners is still low in the country and this goes to show the humungous growth potential for the Indian autombile industry".
According to the official, a mere twelve persons, out of every 1,000 people own vehicles, in contrast with 500 cars out of every 1,000 persons in the US. For a full report, visit automotivehorizon.sulekha.com/
