SE Asia car sales plunge

SE Asia car sales plunge

BANGKOK (AP): Vehicle sales across Southeast Asia fell by 63.8 percent in 1998, according to statistics released on Monday by the Bangkok office of Honda Motor Co.

Sales across the region, which has been devastated by an economic crisis that erupted in July 1997 when Thailand floated its currency, the baht, slumped from 1,329,000 vehicles in 1997 to 480,657 in 1998, Honda said.

Worst hit was Indonesia, which saw car sales plummeting by 85 percent from 386,691 in 1997 to 58,311 last year.

Thailand, which is the automobile manufacturing powerhouse of Southeast Asia, lost its position as the largest market in the region in 1997 and 1998 to Malaysia.

Vehicle sales in Malaysia in 1998 totaled 163,849 units. Thailand sold 144,097, while the Philippines registered 80,219, down 44 percent over the previous year, and Singapore 34,181 vehicles.