New vehicle sales decrease in April
Namibia’s latest vehicle sale statistics indicate that 755 new vehicles were sold in April, a decrease of 17.9% from the 919 vehicles sold in March.
According to statistics released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa, as at 30 April, 3,260 new vehicles were sold for the year, of which 1,489 were passenger vehicles, 1,516 light commercial vehicles, and 255 medium and heavy commercial vehicles.
By comparison, the first four months of 2020 saw 2,270 new vehicles sold. 2021 is thus off to a better start compared to last year, although vehicle sales were adversely affected by strict lockdown restrictions during April last year.
On a twelve-month cumulative basis, a total of 8,601 new vehicles were sold as at April 2021, representing a contraction of 8.5% from the 9,398 sold over the comparable period a year ago.
In their monthly vehicle sales report, JIG noted that despite tallying the second lowest total vehicle sales thus far in 2021, the 755 total sales are still well above the monthly average of 634 sales in 2020.
“The cumulative 12-month total vehicle sales rose for the fourth consecutive month since December 2020. This seems to reflect a gradual recovery in the industry. Although vehicle sales have a minor impact on the overall Namibian economy through its relatively small GDP multiplier, it does reflect overall consumer and business confidence,” IJG stated.
New passenger vehicle sales have been rather steady, revolving around its mean of 372 passenger vehicle sales per month, slightly below 2019 levels of 380, but well above the 291-monthly average in 2020 (excluding April 2020.)
“Overall, this reflects a recovery in consumer confidence towards pre-Covid-19 levels. However, on the commercial side, uncertainty remains as commercial vehicle sales have been volatile, but remains above average levels in 2020, although still lagging pre-Covid-19 levels. This indicates a slower recovery rate in optimism in the commercial sector compared to consumers,” IJG added.
