US consumers rushed to buy cars on the eve of car tariffs on Trump

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US car sales grew last month when consumers have overloaded large purchases in an attempt to outperform new aggressive presidential fees Donald Trump.

In March, retail sales jumped by 1.4 percent, the census bureau reports on Wednesday. The main growth engine was the 5.7 percent jump in the seasonally adjusted sale of cars, the largest increase since January 2023.

The report shows that “savvy consumers” allocate their big ticket purchases to avoid tariff rising prices, James Knightley said, Chief International Economist in Ing.

Trump has introduced a 25 percent collection for car imports made by foreign, starting on April 3.

Additional costs will vary depending on the model and manufacturer, and will be absorbed by some combination of manufacturers, dealers and consumers. Michigan Advisor Anderson Economic Group estimated that tariffs would add Between 4,000 to 10,000 dollars to the cost of most vehicles and about $ 12,000 to the cost of EV.

Consumers “know” about Trump’s aggressive economic policy and its various potential consequences, so “there is an” car tariff effect “, which causes stronger sales in early 2025, said Thomas Ryan, North America economist at Capital Economics.

But economists warned that a strong amount of sales of March could pave the way to a steep reduction in the end of this year, especially if tariffsAs widely expected, consumers begin to transmit down the current.

“We expect that we will see a sharp decline in demand next month,” said Joe Brossulas, Chief Economist of the US Tax and Consulting Firm. He said the sale of cars would fall first, but warns of the weakness “across the board” when Trump’s aggressive economic policy arises.

While consumer expenses remained reliable in recent years, in part because many Americans have created savings during a pandemic, finding that he expected the consumer to become a “less engine” later a year amid new inflation and work safety.

According to a recent poll of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, the expectations of unemployment Americans jumped to the highest level since the pandemic, as long-term inflation expectations have increased.