Local and import brands’ vehicle sales in Korea are projected to fall by 2.1 percent in 2012, compared to the previous year, an automotive research center said Thursday.

In its second-half outlook on the world’s vehicle market, the Korea Automobile Research Institute predicted that global companies will see the pace of sales growth “slow down markedly.”

Affected by the weaker consumer sentiment globally, the local market will see “the number of vehicle sales stay about 1.55 million units this year, down by 30,000 units from 1.58 million units a year earlier,” said KARI, a unit of Hyundai Motor Group.

Despite the estimated yearly drop of 2.1 percent, import brands such as BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea are expected to post more than 20 percent in sales growth, it added.

The institute cited a slashed tariff on import vehicles under the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement and active introduction of cheaper car models for the rosy picture on foreign players.

For its forecast on the world’s market, KARI said that global companies’ sales growth will likely slow down to below 5 percent in the latter half, compared to about a 7 percent growth in the first half.

It picked the worsening eurozone fiscal crisis and tardy pace of the U.S. economic recovery as the main unfavorable factors.

In particular, according to KARI’s analysis, major emerging markets like Brazil and Russia will take the lead in weak demand globally.

The institute forecast that the vehicle sales in the Brazilian market will decline by 4.2 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Russia will see the sales growth stay at 8.6 percent this year, lower by 30.4 percentage points compared to a 39 percent growth in 2011, its report showed.

China is projected to record a similar trend with an estimated 7 percent growth rate this year, in stark contrast to its 32.5 percent in 2010 and 59.6 percent in 2009.

KARI predicted that automobile sales in Europe will decline for the fifth consecutive year.

But the U.S. is likely to see the sales climb by 12.7 percent, buoyed by a drop in auto-oriented loan interest rates, it said.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)