Optimism Far From Over For Foreign Carmakers

Russian economic growth, bolstered by high energy prices and the pent-up demand from 2009's drop in vehicle sales, helped fuel a robust 39% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in new light vehicle sales in Russia to 2.65mn units during 2011, according to estimates from the Russian Association of European Businesses. Although part of the boom was also attributed to the vehicle scrappage scheme, which was introduced with a view to helping ailing domestic carmakers, BMI points out that the performance of foreign carmakers outshone that of domestic carmakers. This indicates a strong shift in consumer preference towards foreign

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