Report by Monika Kristof
Executive summary
- A total of 755 new vehicles were sold in April 2021,which is a decline from 908 vehicles that were sold in March 2021.See figure 1
- The drop in the number of new vehicles sold for April 2021 was driven by a decline in sales of light commercial vehicles and medium commercial vehicles
- A total of 3248 new vehicles were sold in the first four months of 2021
- The annual inflation rate for April 2021 increased to 3.9% from 1.6% recorded for the same period last year. See Figure 1
- On a 12 months period April 2021 recorded the highest annual inflation rate.
- The main drivers of the increase in the annual inflation rate were ,transport, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house, housing, water ,electricity, gas and other fuels, communications and food and non-alcoholic beverages categories .See figure 2
- The hotels and cafes inflation remain in negative territory .
Analysis
- Namibia recorded an annual growth of new vehicles sold between April 2020 and April 2021 from (-15.65) to (21.79%),this was due to improved consumer confidence on the global vaccine roll out. See figure 2
- Light commercial vehicles declined by 34% between March and April 2021,this was due to slow commercial operations
- Medium commercial vehicle sales declined by 67% between March and April 2021,this was due to subdued commercial operations
- Extra heavy commercial vehicle sales increased by 69% between March and April 2021, an increasing number of construction and e-commerce activities resulted in an increase in demand for material transportation, which, in turn, resulted in increased sales of these vehicles ,this is an indication that production is returning
Outlook
- The performance of the vehicle sales sector is dependent on consumers confidence to spend and Private Sector Credit Extension (PSCE)
- The aggressive roll out of the vaccine will lead to increased consumer confidence
- We project a better performance of the vehicle sales sector for the second quarter of 2021 compared to 2020.
Figure 1: Monthly Vehicle Sales (April 2020 – April 2021), Namibia
Figure 2: Year on Year, Vehicle sales growth (April 2020-April 2021), Namibia
