MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) - The head of Russia's largest car producer, AvtoVAZ, said on Friday that he expected the Russian car market to contract in 2009 by 40-50%.
Boris Alyoshin told the Vedomosti daily that between 1.5 million and 1.8 million new cars could be sold next year.
Sollers, which produces Fiat, Isuzu, SsangYong and UAZ cars in Russia, has offered a more optimistic forecast of between 1.9 million and 2.2 million cars.
The paper said around 2.5 million cars were sold over the past 11 months in Russia.
