"The strong growth this year is driven by a rapidly increasing average wage, which rose by more than 10%. As wages continue to rise, more people in Lithuania will afford newer cars," Tadas Povilauskas, the bank's chief analyst, said at a news conference on September 26th.

According to Saulius Mickus, head of the Leasing Department at SEB Lithuania, people this year bought more new cars than they did last year.

"The number of new cars purchased through lease-to-own agreements rose significantly in the first half and almost matched that of second-hand cars. It's hard to say if this upward trend will continue in the future," he told reporters.

Povilauskas added that new car purchases in Lithuania could increase at least by 50%.

According to the car market research company DataCenter, the most popular new car models are Nissan Qashqai, Volkswagen Tiguan, Toyota RAV, Kia Sportage and Toyota C–HR.

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