Car imports drop in February

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese auto businesses imported about 5,000 completely built-up unit (CBU) cars, worth 131 million USD, in February, 1,000 cars less than the previous month, the General Statistic Office (GSO) said.

This was a sharp fall in car imports this year, but had been expected because of the nine-day Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday in February, during which business operations and transactions were suspended in the market.

In addition, the Government began applying a new calculation of a special consumption tax on January 1, 2016, which caused the price of imported cars to rise by an estimated five percent. Therefore, many people bought cars in the last few months of last year, before the new calculation came into effect.

The turnover of imported cars is predicted to increase this year, but the auto market will not experience a ‘boom’ as in 2015.

GSO said Vietnam imported 11,000 cars in the first two months of this year, worth 280 million USD, a decrease of 31.1 percent in quantity and 11.9 percent in value year-on-year.-VNA