Experts forecast decline in automobile sales in Turkey due to price increases

Professionals in the automotive sector point out that car prices have increased by 25 percent on average compared to beginning 2017, due to the increase in exchange rates. Nevertheless they draw attention to the point that the main factor affecting the sector is the excessively high “Special Consumption Tax” rather than exchange rates.

Evaluating the 2017 performance of the automotive sector experts also shared expectations for the new-year to come. The market is very likely to enter new-year with a forecasted decline of 10 percent as many consumers have already realized their purchases earlier following the arrangement in “Special Consumption Tax” regulation in November 2016.

On top of this the market was observed to slow down due to the effect of the exchange rate increase in the first quarter. The automotive market which shrank by about 9 percent in the first half of 2017, started to recover slowly after July, and displayed a performance of 3 percent lower in the first 11 months of 2017, than the same period in 2016.