European Car Sales Rise for the First Time in 7 Years

Europe's automakers' association ACEA has confirmed that the industry's six-year decline ended last year, reporting a 5.7% increase in car sales in 2014 to 12.5 million vehicles. That was the continent's first positive full-year result since 2007, with December marking the 16th straight month of growth. Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan and Renault, said this week at the Detroit Motor Show that he expects European growth this year to be slow, around 1% to 2%. Executive vice president of forecasting for industry consultancy LMC Automotive, Jeff Schuster says the tamped-down forecasts are due in part to deflation concerns.