The slump in the car market persists in the first seven months of 2019, as the number of new registered “commercial” and “passenger” cars retreated from 22,245 by July 2018, to stand at 16,988 cars by July 2019 according to the data provided by the Association of Lebanese Car Importers (AIA).
In details, the AIA corroborates that the latest drop is due to the “dramatic economical and political situation prevailing in the country [and] 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 […]”.As such, the AIA’s statistics showed that the number of newly registered “passenger” cars lost 22.7% year-on-year (YOY) to stand at 16,124 cars, while the number of new registered “commercial” vehicles fell by a yearly 37% to 864 cars by July 2019.
According to the Economic Research dept. at BlomInvest Bank, the top selling brands were Kia, Nissan, followed by Hyundai and Toyota, which grasped the respective shares of 15.70%, 11.48%, 10.80% and 10.48% of total newly registered passenger cars.
Cumulative Number of Cars by July
Source: AIA; BLOMInvest Bank