[THE INVESTOR] Sales of imported vehicles in Korea jumped 15 percent last month helped by a stable supply of vehicles and launching of new models, industry data showed on Dec. 6.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles in the country rose to 22,266 vehicles in November from 19,361 units a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement.

“Last month, imported carmakers had no difficulty in supplying vehicles to meet local orders and aggressively promoted new vehicles,” KAIDA Executive Managing Director Yoon Dae-sung said in the statement. 

The three best-selling models were BMW’s 520d, Mercedes-Benz’s E300 4MATIC and BMW 520d xDrive sedans. Seven out of 10 imported vehicles sold in Korea last month were from Europe, KAIDA said.

In the January-November period, imported car sales here climbed 3.7 percent to 212,660 vehicles from 205,162 units a year earlier, it said.

The share of imported vehicles in the domestic passenger car market rose to 15.24 percent in the 11-month period from 14.58 percent a year earlier, a KAIDA spokeswoman said.   

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)