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By Bloomberg

European car-sales growth accelerated to the fastest pace in 5 1/2 years in June as Volkswagen AG, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Ford Motor Co. attracted customers with new models and the region’s economy expanded.

Registrations rose 15 percent to 1.41 million autos from 1.23 million a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said Thursday in a statement. The jump was the biggest since a 16 percent surge in December 2009, when governments in the region offered incentives on trade-ins of older cars to help the industry recover from the global recession.

The economy of the 19 countries using the euro is in its longest stretch of growth since the 2008 worldwide credit crunch, while unemployment in the U.K. is at close to a seven- year low. The ACEA more than doubled its 2015 regional car- market expansion forecast a week ago. That contrasts with slowing gains that China’s carmakers are predicting in their home country.

“It’s looking good for Europe; there’s a solid upward trend, also partly due to a catch-up effect after demand declined during the financial crisis,” said Frank Biller, a Stuttgart, Germany-based analyst for LBBW. “The question is what’s happening in China, as Russia and South America are also weak.”

The ACEA, which compiles data from 28 of the 29 European Union nations plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, is now forecasting the auto market this year will grow 5 percent, versus an earlier prediction of a 2 percent gain.

Consecutive Gains

Last month was the 22nd in a row of expansion. Figures were helped in part by the Pentecost religious holiday, when retail outlets are closed in several European countries, shifting into May this year from June in 2014. First-half registrations rose 8.2 percent to 7.41 million vehicles.

European sales by Volkswagen, the region’s biggest carmaker, jumped 17 percent last month, helped by the Skoda brand’s Fabia wagon and Superb hatchback, the VW Passat sedan and Porsche’s Macan compact sport utility vehicle. Paris-based Peugeot, which ranks second in group deliveries in the region, posted a 13 percent gain as the 308 hatchback and the Citroen C4 Cactus crossover won customers. The Passat and the 308 are the two most recent winners of the European Car of the Year award.

Chinese Declines

The European Central Bank’s monetary stimulus measures have helped economic revival in most euro-zone countries, partly offsetting the effects of the Greek sovereign-debt crisis. In China, the world’s biggest car market, auto sales fell in June for the first time in more than two years. Manufacturers including BMW, Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen and its Audi premium division have cut prices in China or adjusted sales targets as slowing economic growth and a stock-market rout hold back demand.

Carmakers widened discounting in June in Germany, the region’s largest auto market, with reductions averaging 12.5 percent off the sticker price versus 11.9 percent in May, according to trade publication Autohaus PulsSchlag. General Motors Co.’s Opel division offered the steepest cuts, amounting to 15.8 percent. European sales by Opel and its U.K. sister brand Vauxhall rose 9.6 percent last month.

“We’re emerging from this wait-and-see phase with the Greek crisis, so this may support the car market’s current momentum,” said Georges Dieng, an analyst at Natixis Securities. “One question mark remains on the current level of interest rates, which are still low and helping financing conditions.”

Ford posted a 16 percent surge in European sales. The U.S. company said this week that six-month deliveries of the Mondeo sedan’s latest version jumped 55 percent in the region. Italian- U.S. competitor Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Group NV sold 18 percent more autos in Europe, with demand almost tripling at the Jeep SUV unit.