Data released by LMC Automotive shows the Western European car market off to a strong start in 2015 with January sales up 7.1% on last year.

The Seasonally Adjusted Annualised Rate (SAAR) of sales was put at 12.4m units.

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LMC’s latest market assessment has led to an upward revision to its forecast for the West European car market in 2015, which is now forecast to increase by 3% to 12.5m units. This, LMC said, reflects the impact of lower oil prices and an improved economic outlook in the region.

The big national car markets in the region all posted growth in January.

The German car market selling rate stood at a healthy 3.2m units a year in January. Having expanded by 2.9% last year, further growth is expected in 2015, though with the German car market not far short of pre-Great Recession levels, the scope for further improvement is somewhat more limited.

The Spanish market (+27.5% in January) continues to benefit from government support in the form of the PIVE scrappage incentive scheme. As with the Spanish economy, the car market is expected to outperform the wider region again this year, and will continue to be helped by falling (if still very high) unemployment.

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The Italian car market also improved last month (+10.9%), though prospects for both economic and car market growth “remain limited in the near term”, LMC maintains.

After a fairly disappointing 2014, car registrations in France got off to a good start this year (+5.9%), though the SAAR is still low at 1.85m units.

The positive trend continued in the UK with the market expanding for the 35th consecutive month. Rather than private sales growth, which has been a driver behind the long period of growth, the market climbed in January thanks to business/fleet purchases. Despite January’s growth, LMC says that the UK car market will continue to make a weaker contribution to regional growth in the next few years, having already surpassed pre-2008 levels.

The January sales result will please many in Europe’s automotive sector who are hoping for the upturn this year to gather some momentum. Continued car market growth comes in spite of wider uncertainties for the European economy being generated by the EU’s ongoing crisis with Greece and its debt position following the election of a new anti-austerity government there. One bright note though. Which national car market in Western Europe achieved the highest year-on-year growth in January (a whopping 47.1%)? Greece.