New vehicles sales record worst decline in December 2018
New vehicle sales for Namibia recorded its worst monthly decline of 38.2% in December 2018, wiping out an annual positive growth of 12% recorded in November 2018, retaining its contraction of 12.3% to 732 units in December 2018.
According to Simonis Storms Securities, the decline in December can be ascribed to extra heavy commercial vehicles, light commercial vehicles (LCV), medium commercial vehicles (MCV), passenger and heavy commercial vehicles (HCV), that noticed an annual drop of 66.7%, 46.7%, 45%, 20.8%, and 10%, respectively.
“The total aggregated number of vehicle sales declined by 9.9% to 11 998 units, above our estimate of a 12.5% contraction in 2018. Strain in the vehicle space is reinforced by sluggish consumer spending and contracting instalment credit growth during the year under review,” Simonis Storms said.
Furthermore, Simonis Storms expects total vehicle sales to contract by 4.2% in 2019 mainly on the back of a continuous decline in borrowing through instalment credit.
On the bright side, the firm expects some relieve to come through in the second quarter of 2019 as new models enter the market.
