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wo auto expos, the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) and the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), both of which ended last week, were not able to boost car sales as expected as a result of the current economic slowdown, an industry group has said.

The Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo) recorded that national car sales from January to July plunged by 20.7 percent: Only 581,107 units were sold, compared to 733,444 units in the same period last year.

'€œ[The auto shows] have not been able to increase sales. August is the toughest month [for the car industry] even with the help of the events,'€ the association'€™s chairman Sudirman M. Rusdi said early this week.

Because of the slowing economy, the association has also revised its target for car sales this year down to between 950,000 and 1 million units from 1.2 million units.

The weakening of the rupiah, which has depreciated 12 percent against the US dollar so far this year, has been blamed the drop in overall car sales.

The depreciating rupiah has caused car prices to rise and has weakened people'€™s spending, according to automotive observer Soehari Sargo as quoted by Kontan.

'€œIt is not surprising that our car sales decreased,'€ Soehari said.

Soehari predicted that auto sales would continue slowing down until the end of this year because normally consumers refrain from buying cars in the second half. They usually wait until the following year for the new cars that come out at the beginning of the year.

The association said before the shows that they were expected to increase car sales by five to six percent like in previous years.

'€œWe hope GIIAS would introduce the latest models of cars to customers that would finally increase car sales in Indonesia,'€ Sudirman said before the GIIAS event, which lasted from Aug. 20 to 30.

Gaikindo, which is also the organizer of GIIAS, booked a total of Rp 5.45 trillion (US$388 million) from the sales of 17,077 cars during the event

Meanwhile, IIMS booked a total of Rp 1.63 trillion from 4,894 units of both four-wheeled and two-wheeled vehicles sold during the event.

The combined sales of the two events surpassed that of the previous year'€™s expo, which only reached Rp 5.4 trillion. However, last year'€™s event did not include two-wheeled vehicles.

In previous years, the auto expo was conducted only in one place by Gaikindo and PT Dyandra Media International. This year, however, two expos were held after the two split and each decided to stage their own shows.

The Industry Ministry has suggested that future automotive expos be conducted at different times in order to maximize visitors and sales. (saf)