Vehicle sales in Turkey have declined for a fifth month in a row since February, according to data for June released on July 4 by the Automotive Distributors’ Association (ODD).

Sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) fell by 9% y/y to 83,658 units in the month. Across H1, sales declined 9% y/y, falling to 401,158 units.

Turkey’s passenger car market contracted 7% y/y to 66,164 units in June, while the decline in LCV sales was stronger at 14% y/y to 17,494.

Over H1, passenger car sales were down 10% y/y to 305,924 while LCV sales contracted 5% y/y to 95,234.

In April, Hayri Ece, secretary general of the ODD, said that the decline in Turkey's automotive sales was likely to deepen in the second quarter from the substantial fall in the first quarter due to foreign exchange impacts on prices.

In the first five months of 2017, auto production moved up 22% y/y to a total of 727,997 units while passenger car output rose by 41% y/y to 506,747 units, according to latest data from the Automotive Manufacturers’ Association (OSD).

Auto production increased by 23% y/y to 154,758 units in May, slightly up from the previous month’s 21% y/y rise.

Output is expected to rise by 11% to more than 1.65mn units this year. Exports are set to increase in value to $27bn in 2017 from last year’s $24.2bn, but the domestic automotive market is heading for a sales volume contraction of 11%.

In 2016, the country’s automotive output increased by 9% to 1.49mn units, with passenger car production rising 20% y/y. A total of 1.01mn vehicles were sold in the year - a figure that was almost unchanged from the previous year - while sales of passenger cars increased by 4% to 756,938 units.