MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti, Peter Lavelle)--AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest and state-controlled automotive producers, has announced its car sales rose 3.7% year-on-year in 2005 to 648,000 vehicles while production was up 0.5% year-on-year to 721,492.
The company sold more than 65,000 cars in December, up 23.8% month-on-month and 10.5% year-on-year, while production rose 16.3% year-on-year during the month to 69,136.
The company also said it exported 96,484 vehicles in 2005 compared to 92,986 in 2004.
The investment community sees operational results as encouraging, particularly given the impressive rise in sales in December. The slight increase in production for the full year compares with the market consensus estimate of a 1% decline in output in 2005.
