Car sales to go up despite rising rates

Senior officials of the auto industry have opined that high inflation and hardening of interest rates are not going to affect the surge in car sales. The officials of the country’s top three car makers — Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors said that the fundamentals for new car sales remain strong and demand is unlikely to lessen in the near future. Tata Motors’ group CEO Carl Peter Forster commented that the company believes the fundamentals to be strong and if the economy continues as it does, there should not be any impact on demand. It is worth mentioning here that Tata Motors is going strong in the Indian market. Forster further added that the company is also planning to launch new products.

Though there was a short lull after the global economic downturn that affected the economies across the world but after that, the car sales are going strong.  In the domestic market, the total sales grew by 25% last fiscal and numbers have been rapidly growing even this fiscal. The industry has also grown 34% in the five months ending August. Industry officials stated that the growth and the interest rates are constantly rising.  It is also expected that the coming festival season will also boost the demand. Mayank Pareek, managing executive officer (sales) at Maruti Suzuki commented that the economy is growing and salaries are rising.

Pareek further commented that  the proportion of youngsters in the car buying population is rising, which is an encouraging sign. Their incomes are rising and they are willing to spend. The rural markets have been growing rapidly, said Pareek . He also illustrated that the youngsters contributed 3.5% to Maruti’s sales in 2008 and the number at present  stands at 16.5%. Hyundai India is also hopeful that the market will remain strong.

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