Report by Monika Kristof
Executive summary
- Namibia’s vehicle sales declined to 764 vehicles for August 2021 from 800 vehicles sold for July 2021. See figure 1
- The decline in vehicles sales for August 2021 was mainly driven by low sales in passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles.
- Passenger vehicle sales declined by 13% for August 2021 when compared to July 2021.
- Light commercial vehicle sales declined by 6% for August 2021 when compared to July 2021
- Extra Heavy commercial vehicle sales increased by 238% for August 2021 when compared to July 2021
- On a 12 months cumulative basis between August 2020 to August 2021 a total of 9873 vehicles were sold for Namibia compared to 8955 vehicles sold for the period of August 2019 to August 2020
Analysis
- On an annual basis vehicle sales experienced a growth from (-39.11%) to (38.38%), this was due to the base effect of the 2020 Covid-19 restrictions. See figure 2
- Passenger vehicle sales declined to 340 from 389 vehicles sold in July 2021, this was influenced by the lack of demand and low consumer confidence as individuals and businesses spending remains subdued
- Light commercial vehicle sales declined to 354 from 376 recorded for July 2021, this was due to
subdued activities for light commercial operations
- The number of extra heavy vehicles sold for August 2021 increased to 44 from 13 vehicles sold for July 2021, this was influenced by improvements in construction and e-commerce activities which resulted in an increase in demand for material transportation, this indicates that production is slowly returning
Outlook
- The performance of the vehicle sales sector remains dependent on consumers and businesses confidence to purchase new vehicles.
- The consumer and businesses confidence are still on the recovery path albeit at a very slow pace due to future income uncertainties.
- We project that the vehicle sales sector will remain under pressure for September 2021.
Figure 1: Monthly Vehicle Sales (August 2020 – August 2021), Namibia
Figure 2: Month on Month and Year on Year, Vehicle sales growth (August 2020- August 2021), Namibia
