Friday 16 December 2016 6:34 am

Putting his foot down: Nissan boss says sales will be driven up in 2017 by global demand

The owner of one of the UK's largest car plants has said 2017 will be a year of record sales for the firm.

Nissan's co chief exec Carlos Ghosn said 2016's political events wouldn't stop the Japanese carmaker from taking great strides and selling more cars than ever.

Nissan, whose Sunderland plant was narrowly overtaken as the largest producer in the UK in 2015, was one of the first businesses the UK government approached to give assurances following the Brexit vote.

Meanwhile, Ghosn accepted a rise in raw materials would likely put pressure on profit margins next year but this would be offset by global growing demand for cars, according to reports by Reuters overnight.

"I think 2017 should be a good year. I think we will see reasonable economic growth, particularly in the car industry … I think we will establish a record for sales in 2017," Ghosn said.

Despite concerns over how political ties would develop between President-elect Donald Trump and Mexico, the Nissan boss said he was confident economic ties between the US and south of the border would be strong – this is important because Nissan has a number of production plants in Mexico.

Ghosn added he also wasn't concerned about the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement – an accord Trump has previously said he would "entirely renegotiate” and “terminate”

What has been said by the president of the United States is 'America first' … We have to believe that the programme is about American interest, and American interest includes strong trade relations with Mexico.