Astra 2004 car sales 44% higher

Astra 2004 car sales 44% higher

JAKARTA: PT Astra International's 2004 car sales rose 44 percent on year, thanks to low interest rates, which spurred consumers to buy vehicles via bank loans, a senior official at the nation's largest automotive company said on Thursday.

"We had a 45.1 percent of market share in the total national car sales of 470,000 in 2004," said Astra President Budi Setiadharma.

The company sold 211,970 units last year. Astra sold 147,074 cars, or a 37.7 percent market share in 2003.

Budi said he expects car sales this year to increase by 10 percent due to expectations of improved purchasing power as the government is targeting the economy to grow by 5.5 percent this year, compared with 5 percent in 2004.-- Dow Jones