New passenger car registrations were up by 5.6% in July and by 2.1% in August, pursuing the upward trend commenced twelve months ago.

Eight months into the year, demand for new cars amounted to 8,336,159 units, or 6.0% more than in the same period last year, according to the latest data of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

In July, France was the only major market to shrink (-4.3%). Elsewhere, growth ranged from 5.5% in Italy, 6.6% in the UK, 6.8% in Germany and 11.1% in Spain, leading to a 5.6% upturn in the region. Overall, 1,041,683 new cars were registered in the month.

In August, upturn prevailed across significant markets, resulting in an overall 2.1% increase in the EU. France, Germany and Italy registered a slight decrease (-2.6%, -0.4% and -0.2% respectively), while the other major markets expanded, registering 13.7% more in Spain and 9.4% in the UK. The EU totaled 688,464 new car registrations in the month of August.

From January to August, growth prevailed across major markets, reaching 1.6% in France, 2.6% in Germany, 3.5% in Italy, 10.1% in the UK and 16.4% in Spain. Overall, demand for new cars was 6.0% higher in the EU than in the first eight months of last year.

According to the survey, the sales of new cars in Bulgaria in August registered a slight decrease of 0.8% on an annual basis after a decline of 6.3% in July. According to this indicator, Bulgaria is one of the ten EU member states where new car registrations saw decrease along with countries such as the Netherlands (down by 9.1%), Austria – by 8.4% and Belgium - by 4.1%.

For the first eight months of the year the registration of new cars in Bulgaria, however, has increased by 10.1% to 13,583 automobiles compared with 12,340 units in the first eight months of 2013. According to this indicator Bulgaria occupies the fifteenth place among all EU member states.