Off the Charts: In Debt-Laden Europe, New Cars Stay in Showroom

Total new registrations of passenger cars in the European Union fell by nearly 2 percent in 2011, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association reported this week. It was the fourth consecutive year of declines.

The sales performance varied widely from country to country, reflecting the diverging economic fortunes on the Continent. New-car registrations set records in Belgium and Austria. German registrations were up nearly 9 percent, although they remain below their levels before the credit crisis.

But in troubled Greece, fewer than 100,000 new passenger cars were registered. That had not happened since at least 1990. In 2007, nearly 280,000 new cars were registered.

In Belgium, more than 50 new cars were registered for every 1,000 people. In Greece, the number was under nine. In Hungary, where new car registrations are less than half their level of four years ago, the figure is about half the Greek level.

New-car registrations in Europe provide an economic barometer of national conditions because no one really needs a new car. A family may need a replacement vehicle, but a used car can be purchased. Within the Common Market, it is easy to fill demand for used cars in struggling countries with trade-ins from customers in more prosperous economies.

The accompanying charts show the trends. Levels of wealth in the European Union were never close to equal, but the disparities have grown rapidly since the credit crisis began. Signs of a recovery in automobile demand in late 2009 vanished as the sovereign debt crisis emerged, first in Greece and then in other countries.

Over all, the 13.1 million cars registered in 25 members of the European Union was the smallest figure for any 12 months since data for the enlarged union began to be calculated in 2003. For the first 15 members of the European Union, data goes back much further. This was the lowest year for them since 1997, a year before the euro became the common currency for many countries.

The charts show the rapid decline in new-car registrations in the countries most hurt in the sovereign debt crisis. In 2007, Spain had 36 registrations per 1,000 residents, well above the European Union average of nearly 32. In 2011, the Spanish figure had dropped by half, and it was well below the European Union average. Ireland fell just as rapidly, although registrations did begin to pick up in 2011.

The figures reflect registrations of new passenger cars, and do not include small trucks. Figures for the United States, which do include such vehicles, are not directly comparable. But they showed increases in both 2010 and 2011.

All told, the countries in the European Union registered 15.8 percent fewer new passenger cars in 2011 than they had registered in 2007, the last full year before the credit crisis. The figure was up in seven countries, but down by 50 percent or more in eight nations.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy at nytimes.com/economix.

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