Speaking at a media briefing in Colombo yesterday (05), Carmudi Sri Lanka Managing Director - Firaz Markar said, “Recent events resulting in vehicle values going up have definitely affected the market. We see lower sales in vehicles since news broke of this increase. Interest rate changes are not expected to affect the market drastically due to it being a very nominal increase thus far."

Noting that 'everyone is quite unsure where the current market is', Markar said that consumers and dealers are resorting to a 'wait and see approach' at the present.

However, he said that they expect the market to make a comeback in the next couple of months.

He was speaking as Carmudi released a ground-breaking new research white paper detailing the recent performance of the Sri Lankan automotive industry and an in-depth analysis into key trends in vehicle financing.

Explaining the rationale behind the launch of the new research white paper, Makar said, “There is today a considerable amount of debate with regard to the current levels of demand for vehicles in Sri Lanka and of course the proper approach to regulations in order to effectively cope with such demand in a manner that is beneficial to all stakeholders.

“In that context, the release of this report is a timely development that we hope will shed some light on the current dynamics in Sri Lanka’s automotive industry and hopefully contribute towards the formation of an effective discussion on regulatory policy and other salient issues that is informed by hard facts,” he stated.

Zared Raymond - head of Account Management and Pradeep Jeevaratnam - Head of Product of Content also attended the event.