South Korea's car sales up 8.8% on-year in March

The number of cars sold in South Korea last month jumped nearly 9 percent on-year on strong sales of foreign-made cars, government data showed Tuesday.
A total of 150,383 vehicles were sold in the country in March, up 8.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The rise in sales was largely attributed to the continued popularity of imported cars, whose sales spiked 41.3 percent on-year to 23,220 units last month, according to the data.
Carmakers in South Korea also saw an improvement in their sales, which moved up 4.4 percent on-year to 127,163 units last month, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.
Overseas auto brands have continued to be popular here in recent years, with their market share reaching 15.4 percent last month, surging 3.5 percentage points from the 11.9 percent tallied a year earlier, the data showed.
In contrast, outgoing shipments of locally-made cars dropped amid adverse business conditions abroad, including the weakening of the Japanese yen and a plunge in global oil prices that has led to a fall in demand from oil-producing countries.
Auto exports came to 277,874 units in March, down 2.6 percent from the year before.
In March, auto production in South Korea fell 2.6 percent on-year to 414,352 units, according to the data.