New car sales fall sharply in November

There was a sharp decline in the number of new car sales in November compared with the same period last year.

Data released by the Central Statistics Office this morning showed that 3,783 new cars were licenced in the month - down 15.9 per cent when compared with November 2002.

Over the first 11 months of the year, there were 141,044 private new cars liecenced, down 4.5 per cent when compared with the same period in 2002.

The number of new goods vehicles licensed dropped 14.2 per cent in November compared with the previous year.

The total number of vehicles licenced during the first 10 months of this year was 211,736, slightly below the 214,006 mark for the equivalent period last year.