According to the Association of Lebanese Car Importers (AIA), the number of new registered “commercial” and “passenger” cars witnessed a 19.87% annual slump to settle at 11,162 cars by May 2019. In details, the breakdown of the AIA’s statistics revealed that the number of newly registered “passenger” cars dropped by 19.06% year-on-year (y-o-y) to settle at 10,560 cars. In turn, the number of new registered “commercial” vehicles contracted by a yearly 31.90% to 602 cars.
The AIA emphasizes that, “This situation is due to the dramatic economic and political situation prevailing in the country, to the decisions of the banks to impose a down payment of 25% and to raise the interest rate from 3.9% to 8.5% on car loans, and also to increase the interest rate on companies, which hinders their growth.”
According to BlomInvest, in terms of brands, Kia grasped the largest share of the total for newly registered passenger cars (15.36%), followed by a stake of 11.58% for Nissan. Toyota came next in the ranking, as it grasped 10.38% of newly registered passenger vehicles. In turn, Hyundai followed with a share of 10.28%.
Breakdown of Passenger and Commercial Cars by May
Source: AIA