SEOUL, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The sale of foreign luxury cars in South Korea posted a double-digit fall last month amid the weaker demand for luxury brands, industry data showed Wednesday.
The number of imported vehicles registered here was 19,548 in May, down 16.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA).
For the first five months of this year, the number tumbled 23 percent to 89,928 units compared with a year earlier.
The decline was attributed to weaker demand for foreign luxury brands, caused by the lackluster economy.
The country's real gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, contracted 0.4 percent in the January-March quarter from three months earlier.
German luxury brand Mercedes-Benz sold 6,092 vehicles last month, maintaining the top spot. Its market share was 31.1 percent in the South Korean foreign car market.
BMW came in second with 3,383 vehicles sold here, followed by Japanese brand Lexus with 1,431 cars and another Japanese carmaker Toyota with 1,269 units sold.
The imported cars in the domestic market posted a market share of 14.9 percent last month. During the January-May period, the market share stood at 14.7 percent.
