Vehicle sales up 29%

JAKARTA (JP): Sales of automotive vehicles in Indonesia increased by 29.23 percent to 181,747 units in the first six months of 1995, as compared with 140,638 units during the same period of last year, an executive said yesterday.

"The increase in the sales of automotive vehicles in the first half of 1995 was due to, among other things, the improvement in economic conditions and buyers' anticipation of price increases in line with the appreciation of the yen," the secretary-general of the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo), F. Soeseno, told The Jakarta Post.

He said the announcement of the May 23 deregulation package had helped to increase sales of automotive vehicles sharply last month to 33,453 units, as compared with 31,752 units in May and 31,568 in April.

Sri Supeni, an association executive, said that the sales of commercial vehicles rose 33.55 percent to 160,700 units in the January-June period of 1995 as compared with 120,330 units in the corresponding period of 1994.

"But sales of passenger cars increased by only 3.23 percent to 18,950 units in the first six months of 1995, as compared with 18,357 units in the same period of 1994," Sri said.

The exports of automotive vehicles rose by 7.48 percent to 2,097 units in the first semester of 1995 from 1,951 units in the same period of 1994, Sri said.

Soepeno said the sales of automotive vehicles this year are expected to reach 350,000 units.(31)