Report by: Monika Kristof
Executive summary
- The number of new vehicles sold for December 2020 increased to 700 from 698 vehicles sold for November 2020. See figure 1.
- The Increase in the number of vehicles sold for December 2020 was mainly influenced by high sales recorded for extra heavy commercial vehicles and heavy commercial vehicles, this was influenced by the development of commercial operations in logistics.
- On a monthly basis, passenger vehicles sales declined by (-2.7%) and light commercial vehicle sales declined by (-1.9%), between November 2020 and December 2020.
Analysis
- On an annual basis vehicle sale declined from (-12.38 %) to (-21.56%), this was influenced by the lack of demand for passenger vehicles. See figure 2.
- The passenger vehicles sold declined from 339 in November 2020 to 330 vehicles in December 2020, this was influenced by income losses experienced by households which emanated from retrenchments due to COVID-19.
- Light commercial vehicle sales declined to 315 for December 2020 from 321 that was recorded for November 2020, the decline was influenced by the low demand for these vehicles as majority of the business operations stopped for the holiday season.
- The month of December 2020 recorded an increase in sales for heavy commercial vehicles and extra heavy commercial vehicles when compared to November 2020, this was influenced by the development of commercial operations in logistics especially for the health sector and an increase in e-commerce activities which led to an increase in the demand for heavy and extra heavy commercial vehicles.
Outlook
- We anticipate that the commercial vehicle sales will increase for 2021, due base effects as business operations are starting to adapt to Covid19.
- However, we expect the passenger vehicle sales to remain subdued as households remain at risk due to continuous retrenchments brought by the pandemic.
Figure 1: Monthly Vehicle Sales (December 2019–December 2020), Namibia
Figure 2: Year on Year, Vehicle sales growth (December 2019-December 2020), Namibia
