SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's imported car sale rose modestly last month as the lower tax exemption for car purchase weakened demand for vehicles, industry data showed Wednesday.
The number of imported vehicles sold here was 19,778 in July, up 1.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA).
Imported car sales grew faster since February as the government cut the car purchase tax to prop up the lackluster economy, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tax exemption for car purchase was lowered beginning July, weakening demand for newly imported vehicles.
German carmaker Mercedes Benz ranked first with the sale of 5,215 vehicles here last month, up 29.0 percent from a year earlier.
It was followed by German automakers BMW with the sale of 3,816 vehicles, Audi with 2,350 units and Volkswagen with 1,118 vehicles respectively.
The sale of European brands grew 4.9 percent over the year to 15,842 vehicles in July, while the sale of U.S. models jumped 39.0 percent to 2,322 units.
Japanese vehicle sale plunged 39.6 percent from a year earlier to 1,614 units in July amid the continued campaign here to boycott Japanese products. Enditem
