European car prices rise by 5% in a year

NEW car prices have risen across Europe by almost 5% over the past 12 months.

The latest European index of New Car Prices published by eurocarprice.com in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers follows movements in retail prices in the year to March.

In the UK, it found that average retail prices for new cars rose by 1.9% - 2.7% weaker than the 4.6% rise across Europe as a whole.

But new car retail prices in the UK are 2% higher than the average price of a new car in the euro currency zone.

The price index, which covers 19 countries, found Poland experienced the greatest increase in retail prices, where they rose by 10.8% during the 12 months to March 2003.

At the other end of the scale, retail prices in the Czech Republic only grew by 1.2%.

The table below shows the percentage movements in the retail prices of new cars by country over the 12 months to March and during the past month.

It also shows the relative position of countries compared to Index 100 (the average for the euro currency countries in the list).

The study also tracks movements in pre-tax prices of new cars in the euro zone, and some other markets, and its latest findings show a mixed picture.

Pre-tax prices for vehicles in euro currency countries rose by 4.3% in the 12 months to March - a noticeable strengthening of the price trend compared to six months ago.

However, the overall picture in western Europe is for pre-tax price rises to become weaker: prices rose 1.7% in the year to March compared to 2.3% in the year to January.

The report cites a stronger euro as the main reason for the change.

Euro car price fact file
	Annual price trend	Retail price index	Last month index points
Poland	10.8%	86	-2
Czech Republic	0.2%	94	-1
Italy	5.2%	96	-
Belgium	6.7%	97	-
Sweden	5.7%	97	-
Germany	1.7%	97	-1
Spain	6.8%	98	1
France	5.1%	98	-
Switzerland	3.8%	102	-
Great Britain	1.9%	102	-
Hungary	4.1%	105	-
Greece	1.1%	106	-
Austria	5.9%	110	-
The Netherlands	6.1%	115	-
Portugal	7.4%	129	-
Ireland	7.4%	132	-
Finland	0.5%	134	-
Norway	2.2%	163	-8
Denmark	9.6%	193	2
Eurozone ave.	4.6%	100	-
W.Europe ave.	4.3%	102	-
E.Euroe ave.	6.9%	100	-1