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Indonesian car sales soar

JAKARTA: Indonesian car sales soared 500 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, a report said on Saturday.

As many as 54,500 cars were sold from January to March compared with 8,840 during the same period last year, Bambang Trisulo, chairman of the Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo) said, according to the Bisnis Indonesia daily.

Trisulo said the increase in car sales was partly due to the improving economy and political stability.

"We hope the government will maintain this condition so that the automotive industry and market will continue to gain," he said. He said the figure did not include sales by auto companies which are not Gaikindo members, estimated at between 1,000 and 2,000 units.

"With this encouraging development, we expect car sales this year to reach 240,000 units," he said, adding that the sales target this year had earlier been set at 200,000 units.

Trisulo said the believed imports of fully-assembled cars would not much affect the country's automotive sales.

"The effect is very small, maybe only one percent," he said.

Indonesian car sales stood at almost 400,000 in 1997, then plummeted to 58,312 in 1998 as the full force of the regional economic crisis took effect.ÑAPP