Egypt, welcome to the club. It used to be only developed economies that suffered from collapsing auto sales. So, I was surprised to learn the other day that Egypt’s annual car sales have plummeted from 250,000 to 85,000 in the past six months. I imagine there are thousands of unsold cars parked in lots outside of Cairo just like there are in Detroit.
But don’t worry, Egypt, you’re not the only new member: car sales have also fallen in China and India. In fact, you can probably find mini-Detroits all across the Silk Road as unsold cars pile up.
The middle-class dream has turned sour. How so? The rise of the Silk Road’s middle-class was one of the region’s big stories of the past decade. And, importantly, the middle-class was a big buyer of cars, whether it was China’s Volkswagen Santana or India’s Maruti 800. In fact, more cars were sold in China, Egypt, and India last year than in the United States.
