HANOI, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's automobile sales in the first eight months of this year were 177,037 units, down 6 percent against the same period last year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Wednesday.
In August alone, 22,099 automobiles of all kinds were sold, up 7 percent against July and up 1 percent against August 2016, the association said, noting that sales of passenger cars last month stood at 12,568 units, up 12 percent against the month earlier.
Automobile sales, especially those of local firm Truong Hai and Toyota Vietnam, are likely to increase early next year when import taxes on vehicles will be slashed to zero percent in line with the ASEAN Free Trade Area, local experts said.
Vietnam spent nearly 3.5 billion U.S. dollars importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly from January to August, posting a year-on-year decline of 10.6 percent.
Specifically, Vietnam imported 66,000 completely-built automobiles worth nearly 1.4 billion U.S. dollars, down 4.4 percent in volume, and down 14.4 percent in value, according to the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade.
