Fitch: Global car sales to fall 4% in 2019

Global car sales are expected to fall by about 3.1 million in 2019, a bigger drop than in 2008, Fitch Ratings economics team said Monday, citing data collected by the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, Report informs referring to CNBC.

Global passenger car sales fell to 80.6 million in 2018 from 81.8 million new units sold in 2017, which was the first annual decline since 2009, Fitch said. Worldwide sales in 2019 look likely to fall by another 4% to around 77.5 million new vehicle sales

“The downturn in the global car market since the middle of 2018 has been a key force behind the slump in global manufacturing and the car sales picture is turning out a lot worse than we expected back in May,” Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, said in a statement.

Falling demand in China, the world’s largest auto market, is a major factor in the worldwide decline this year. Sales there fell 11% during the first 10 months of this year compared with the same time last year. Coulton said weak credit growth, a rise in used car sales and new emissions standards depressed new car sales in China.

Fitch Ratings anticipates an approximately 2% decline in U.S. sales to 16.9 million vehicles in 2019.