Car sales in Vietnam doubled in the first quarter of the year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA) said April 6. Large gains from the country's booming stock market drove the growth, a VAMA official said, which reported a total of 12,183 vehicles sold between January and March, compared to last year's figure for the same period of 6,091.
Leading the surge were passenger cars, up by 235%, from 829 units in the three-month period last year to 2,774 this year. For the month of March alone, car sales were up 91% year-on-year, from 2,334 to 4,469 units, the association said.
"Many people who earned huge money from trading securities ordered cars in January before the Tet traditional lunar new year festival, and they could only receive their cars this month," a VAMA official said.
Ho Chi Minh City's benchmark VN Index has outperformed every other stock exchange in Asia, with a growth of nearly 145% last year and about 40% this year. VAMA has 18 members, of which 11 are foreign funded.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
