Report by: Monika Kristof
Executive summary
- Marginally, January 2021 recorded a sale of 694 new vehicles down from 700 new vehicles that were sold in the previous month. See figure 1.
- The decline in new vehicles sold for January 2021 was driven by poor sales experienced for the light commercial vehicles market.
- Passenger vehicle sales experienced a growth in sales for January 2021.
Analysis
- On an annual basis vehicle sale further declined to (-17.30) from (-12.48) that was recorded for the same period last year, this was caused both demand and supply disruptions brought by the pandemic. See figure 2.
- The monthly increase in the sales of passenger vehicles from 330 to 355 recorded for January 2021 this was influenced by an upturn in consumers confidence.
- The monthly decline in the number of light commercial vehicles sales from 315 to 301 was influenced by business adjusting to operate under the new normal.
- Extra heavy commercial vehicle sales declined from 32 to 19 vehicles as compared to the previous month, this was due to low demand in the economic environment.
Outlook
- The uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of the vaccine and the duration and severity of the COVID-19 crisis makes it hard to anticipate for a full recovery.
- We anticipate that new vehicle sales for the month of February 2021 will remain subdued.
Figure 1: Monthly Vehicle Sales (January 2020 – January 2021), Namibia
Figure 2: Year on Year, Vehicle sales growth (January 2020-January 2021), Namibia
