New vehicle sales in Thailand fell by 11.7% to 74,117 units in March from very depressed year earlier sales of 83,893 units which had fallen by more than 46% year on year.

The data, released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), reflects the depressed state of the Thai economy which is struggling under high household debt, depressed commodity prices and weak external demand.

First quarter sales fell by 11.8% to 197,734 units from 224,171 units the previous year.