The Spanish manufacturers’ association Anfac has announced that private car sales plummeted by 50% in July, compared to July 2009, bringing the market back to its 1995 level. Despite an increase of over 40% during the first five months of the year, the Anfac had already sounded alarm bells, reports autoactu, and is particularly concerned that not only did sales drop by such a great amount in July, but order taking suffered even more. It goes as far as to say that the current state of the market, with 2010 as a whole expected to be lower than 2009, could have repercussions in terms of employment. The ending of the grant scheme ‘Plan 2000 E’, accompanied by a hike in VAT, are said to be behind this situation. The Anfac believes that prolonging the scheme could save over 14,000 jobs and thus save the government 170 million Euros in unemployment payouts.

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