Top car markets with the biggest declines in EU

Poland: -11%

Poland posted the slightest drop (-11%) of the nine worst performers in the four nine months.

The car industry recorded 104,398 new-car registrations, down 11% from 116,683 in the same period of last year.

April registrations dropped 12% to 25,313, versus 28,720 a year earlier.

Lithuania: -23%

In Lithuania, year-to-date car registrations decreased by 23% from the same period of last year, to 1,956.

In Jan-April 2009, 2,530 new passenger cars were registered in Lithuania.

April registrations came in 8% below year-ago level to 581, from 631 in 2009.

Slovakia: -26%

The Slovak car industry dropped 26% in the first four months, to 16,626 new-car registrations.

In Jan-April period, 22,474 new passenger cars were registered in Slovakia.

New-car registrations in Slovakia fell 51% in April, to 4,836 from 9,778 in the same period of last year.

Germany: -26%

The German car market decreased year-to-date by 26% to 929,824 new-car registrations.

In Jan-Apr period 2009, 1.24 million new cars were registered in Germany.

April registrations fell 32% to 259,414 from 379,626 from the same period of last year.

Latvia: -30%

New-car registration in Latvia dropped 30% year-to-date to 1,148 from 1,636 in the same period of 2009.

April registrations stood at last year’s level, namely 327 registrations.

Estonia: -34%

With 2,306 new car registrations year-to-date, the car market in Estonia posted 34% drop from the same period of last year.

In the Jan-Apr 2009, 3,514 new cars were registered in Estonia.

April registrations declined 25% year-on-year, to 706 from 942% in 2009.

Bulgaria: -47%

After the first four months, new-car registrations slumped 47% to 4,557 in Bulgaria, from 8,543 a year earlier.

April registrations dropped 51% year-on-year from 1,201 to 2,443.

Hungary: -53%

Hungary joins the list of car markets with the biggest declines year-to-date, with a drop bigger than 50%.

Over 13,825 new cars were registered in Jan-Apr period, 53% below year-ago level.

In the first four months of 2009, the Hungarian car market reported 29,365 new-car registrations.

April registrations fell 46% to 3,647, from 6,175 in the same period of last year.

Romania: -56%

According to year-to-date performance, the Romanian car market suffered the biggest drop in new car registrations, -56% year-on-year.

17,694 new cars were registered in the Jan-Apr period, versus 40,178 a year earlier.

April registrations dropped 20% from 11,052 to 8,875.