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New vehicle sales drop by 1.3%

Johannesburg - New vehicle sales dropped by 1.3% in August, compared to the same month last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA (Naamsa) said on Monday.

Last month, aggregate new vehicle sales were 55 751, which was 738 less than August last year.

"As anticipated, new vehicle sales had shown a marginal decline year on year, while export sales had staged a strong recovery," Naamsa said in a statement.

"In the event, domestic new vehicle sales had continued to show resilience, for the third month in a row, despite subdued economic growth and pressure on consumers’ disposable income."

Export sales showed a 18.5% improvement with 25 027 vehicles exported compared to 21 116 in August last year.

Out of the total reported industry sales of 55 751 vehicles, 79.8% were dealer sales, 13.1% sales to the vehicle rental industry, 3.6% to industry corporate fleets, and 3.5% to government.

Naamsa said domestic sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses improved by 2.1% compared to August last year.

Medium commercial vehicle sales showed a slight decline of 3.5% while sales of heavy trucks and buses marginally improved by 0.1%.

Overall the continued strength in commercial vehicle sales was encouraging and suggested improved investment sentiment, the association said.

"The outlook for the SA automotive sector for the balance of 2014 would remain challenging. Relatively low economic growth, recent increases in interest rates and above inflation new vehicle price increases, would combine to dampen new vehicle sales momentum," Naamsa said.

The domestic automotive market was expected to register a drop in volume of between 4% and 5% compared to 2013.

"South Africa requires stronger growth, faster employment creation and a narrowing of the country’s current account and fiscal deficits," Naamsa said.

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