Aumacon says, Dutch car sales likely to fall to 45-year low

Aumacon says, Dutch car sales likely to fall to 45-year low

Dutch car sales will likely fall to their lowest level since 1969 this year, automotive industry consultancy group Aumacon says.

The group says it has lowered its annual outlook for market deliveries by 9 percent to 380,000 from 415,000, citing a sluggish economic recovery and weak consumer confidence.

“It is clear that our earlier forecast will not be met,” Aumacon’s director, Clem Dickmann, said in a statement. “We had expected more from the recovery of consumer confidence.”

Car sales in the Netherlands, the Eurozone’s fifth-largest economy, haven’t been so low since 1969, the group added.

A decline of the automobile’s position both as a status symbol and mode of transportation in the Netherlands is also hurting sales, said Aumacon, an independent automotive consultancy.

The Dutch economy is struggling to pull out of recession and is expected to grow 0.75 percent in 2014 and 1.25 percent in 2015. The country’s leading economic forecaster warned last week that the Ukraine crisis could slow the recovery.