Total vehicle sales in Turkey are expected to decline by 39% y/y to 600,000 units in 2018, Hayri Erce, general director of the Turkish Automotive Distributors’ Association (ODD), said on October 17.

Domestic vehicle sales are expected to decline further to 450,000 units in 2019, Ali Bilaloglu, chairman of ODD, said.

Producers and consumers are under pressure in Turkey as the country, beset by a currency crisis that analysts fear could morph into a debt crisis, slips towards what could be a deep recession.

Total vehicle production is expected to decline by 5% y/y to 1.59mn in 2018, Erce also said, adding that vehicle exports in units are expected to decline by 2.5% y/y.

The ODD previously forecast auto sales of between 925,000 and 975,000 vehicles in 2018. Turkey's vehicle sales decreased by 2.8% to 983,720 units in 2017.

In January-September, Turkey’s overall vehicle sales were down 26% y/y to 463,456 units, ODD reported on October 2.

In 2017, Turkey’s auto production increased by 13% y/y to a record high of 1.67mn units thanks to rising exports. In 2016, the country’s automotive output increased by 9% to 1.49mn units.

Across January-September, total vehicle production in Turkey declined by 5% y/y to 1.17mn units while export revenues rose by 13% y/y to $24bn despite a 1% y/y decline to 972,208 units in sales abroad, data from the Turkish Automotive Manufacturers’ Association (OSD) showed on October 12.

Turkish carmaker Tofas is to suspend production at its Bursa plant for nine days in October given the contraction in demand seen in its domestic market, the company said on September 26 in a bourse filing.

Turkey's consumer sentiment reading saw its biggest decline in at least 14 years in September, falling 13% m/m. That was marked down as the sharpest monthly decline recorded since 2004 when the index was first compiled, and followed the 7% m/m drop posted in August.

The index figure of 59.3 registered in September was the lowest level seen since September 2015, data from national statistics office TUIK released on September 20 also showed.