Wall Street Journal, 8/6/2012
SAO PAULO–A surge in domestic sales in July has raised hopes among Brazil’s motor-vehicle manufacturers for a solid second-half performance, with the industry’s trade group holding to its 2012 forecast of a 5% rise in overall sales.
At a news conference Monday, the president of the National Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, Cledorvino Belini, said, “The Brazilian economy is going to post solid growth in the second half of the year. Interest rates will continue to decline, and credit will continue to expand.”
Earlier Monday, the association released July sales figures for motor vehicles. Although the year-to-date figure for sales of 2.081 million units was up only 1.8% from the same period of 2011, July showed a stunning 18.9% rise over July of 2011, to 364,196 units.
