Berlin- New passenger car registrations in Central and Eastern Europe raced ahead again in March, data released Tuesday showed, as strong consumer demand continued to boost auto sales across the region.

Despite rising oil prices and growing global economic uncertainty, car registrations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) rose by 3.5 per cent last month.

This brought the increase in the first quarter in the CEE region to 14.7 per cent, which was helped along by a 19.5-per-cent jump in Poland and a 23.6-per cent increase in Romania during the opening three months of the year.

Indeed, eight of the ten CEE nations that have signed up to European Union membership in recent years reported an increase in car registrations in the first quarter with Bulgaria bounding ahead by 18 per cent last month after a 40.7-per-cent rise in March.

While quarterly car sales rose by 9.7 per cent in the Czech Republic, in Slovakia auto sales jumped by 18.2 per cent in the first three months.

A more mixed picture of the car market in the Baltics emerged from the figures with Lithuania posting a 51-per-cent quarterly rise.

However, in Estonia, car sales slumped by 5.9 per cent during the quarter and by 25.3 per cent in Latvia.