Spain bucks the downward trend in euro zone auto registrations

France, Italy and Spain have this week reported auto registrations during November. “After our regular adjustments for working day and seasonality effects, we conclude that the trends continued to weaken, particularly in France, whereas the Spanish series appeared to show a slight improvement last month,” Barclays analysts said.

According to their calculations, French auto registrations fell by 6 percent in November from October, in which the drop had been of 4 percent comparing to the previous month. In Italy, figures show the record has declined in 17 of the last 21 months, as it did in November by 1.6 percent after a loss of 2.4 percent in October.

Spanish auto registrations suffered a 27 percent collapse in September, mostly due to the introduction of a higher VAT rate. In October, there was a much more moderated fall of 4 percent. But in November, the trend has recovered by 9 percent, unlike its neighbours in the euro zone.