France: Signs of life seen in French car market

摘要

France's new car market, which looks like a mere shadow of its former self after suffering four successive years of plummeting home sales, shows the first faint signs of a green shoot recovery. Cumulative car sales figures for this year's opening two months, while still trailing last year's corresponding sales levels by less than one per cent, have probably triggered a great sigh of relief from deeply anxious French carmakers and importers alike. Though too much significance cannot be read into this year's two months figures, today's consensus view is that finally the worst is over and that from now on the market will make a steady recovery. And in so doing, France is now widely tipped to follow the encouraging rebound in car sales already witnessed across most of continental Europe during the opening two months of this year.