DUBLIN: Ireland recorded increase in auto sale in first seven months of the current calendar year as compared with the whole year 2014.
The country’s economy grew by 6.5 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2015 and is forecast to be the fastest-growing economy in Europe for the second year running as consumers begin to spend again on high-value items such as cars.
Just over 122,000 new vehicles were licenced in the year to end-July, Ireland’s Central Statistics Officer said, a 32 percent increase on the same period a year ago and already ahead of the near-118,000 registered during 2014.
At the 2007 peak, almost a quarter of a million cars and good vehicles were sold in the country of 4.6 million people before a property crash triggered a recession that cut the number of new vehicles sold by over a third within two years.
In July alone – a month that many buyers target because new vehicle registration plates become available for the second half of the year – car sales rose by 52 percent year-on-year and goods vehicle purchases were up 54 percent.
