Europe Car Market Shrinks 10 percent in February

Europe’s new car market shrank a further 10.2 percent in February, according to figures from the Association of European Car Manufacturers on Tuesday.

Ford , General Motors and Fiat were the worst performers, as European car registrations fell to 829,359 vehicles after hitting a 17-year low in January.

Car makers in Europe are still reeling from a terrible 2012, when annual car sales volumes in the EU fell 8.2 percent to 12.05 million vehicles in 2012. In the euro zone, they dropped 11.3 percent to just under 9 million, according to Reuters calculations.

This year is shaping up to be another tough slog for mass market car makers, as consumers in recessionary European economies postpone new car purchases.

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza