JAMA expects auto sales to improve by 2011

JAMA Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga expects domestic auto demand to recover toward the end of next year, even though the association predicts sales will fall 9.9% to their lowest in 34 years for the whole of 2011. Monthly auto sales will likely begin to recover from the year-earlier period around September, Shiga said. The improvement should come as the effects of the sudden drop-off in demand government subsidies ended in September begin to have less of a distorting effect on the year-on-year comparison figures. (December 22, 2010)