Car Sales in Thailand Likely to Fall Again This Year

Car sales in Thailand are expected to shrink in 2016 for the fourth consecutive year, Toyota Motor Corp. tells reporters in Bangkok.

Toyota predicts this year’s sales will drop 9% to 720,000 units, about half the market’s peak in 2012, Bloomberg News reports. Analysts blame China’s slowing economic growth, which hurts exports and consumer spending. The same factors are impacting other economies in southeast Asia.

Bloomberg notes that Honda, Nissan and Toyota all suspended production for several months in Thailand in 2011 after the country was ravaged by its worst floods in 50 years. Government incentives helped sales recover, but that support has ended.