Car sales slumped in June. The Finnish Information Centre of the Automobile Sector reports that only 7,700 new cars were registered in June, 31 percent fewer than during the same month of last year.

As of the beginning of April, vehicle sales tax increased on all new registrations with CO2 emissions above 110gm/km. 

The automobile sector centre says that car sales for January through March were better than for the same months of 2010, but went into sharp decline with the introduction of higher taxes on many cars. It also attributed the downswing in part to a general dampening of economic prospects.

However, the auto retail sector believes that the impact of the tax change may ease and up to 110,000 new cars may be registered this year.