Sales of new cars in Argentina crash 50% in first quarter of the year

Tuesday, April 2nd 2019 - 09:50 UTC

Full article 16 comments

Compared to the same months the previous year, January 2019 saw sales drop 50.1%, with February dropping 42.5% year-on-year

Sales of new cars in Argentina collapsed by almost 50% in the first quarter of 2019, the Association of Automobile Dealers of Argentina (ACARA) said Monday. Sales fell by 49.5% in the year-on-year comparison, with purchases down 50.4% in March year-on-year too, said ACARA.

In the monthly comparison, March saw a drop of 3.1% on February sales. The chamber described that as the first time in 17 years that the month of March had seen lower sales than in the month of February.

Compared to the same months the previous year, January 2019 saw sales drop 50.1%, with February dropping 42.5% year-on-year. In total, 139,086 vehicles (locally produced and imported) were sold in the first three months of the year, compared to 275,555 in the same three months of 2018.

“These are months with extremely worrying numbers, and in order to see a first quarter like this one, where patents [ [the registration of new cars] did not exceed 140,000 units, we must refer to 2006, a year that ended with 450,000 [new registrations],” said ACARA President Dante Álvarez.

The automotive industry is experiencing severe difficulties in Argentina, with a number of staff being laid off. Official data shows the sector is running at just 25% of its potential capacity. The president of Acara pointed to a lack of funding and the increasing tax pressure as complicating factors for a sector “that employs more than 70,000 people directly.”

Categories: Economy, Argentina.

Tags: Argentina, Argentina crisis, Association of Automobile Dealers of Argentina (ACARA), Car Industry, cars, Dante Álvarez, economic crisis, new cars, recession.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules

Enrique Massot
Who would have thought of it? President Mauricio Macri is an environmentalist disguised as a oligarchic neocon.

He's succeeding in reducing carbon emissions in Argentina more than the most determined environmentalist! Less car use, more walking, less eating carbon-intensive red meat -- in fact, just eating less of everything.

Allow Macri to stay one more term as president, he will even reduce the number of Argentines alive when the reduction in retirement income, health care and pharma assistance begin to impact life expectancy.

But hey, what's to worry islanders? Macri is a good friend helping the economic development of the islands, so more of a good thing is welcome!
Apr 03rd, 2019 - 03:10 am 0
DemonTree
@EM
'Not trying to choke off economic development' would be more accurate, but whatever the Islanders think of Macri, they don't have a vote. Wouldn't you be better off commenting on Clarin or somewhere if you hope to change people's minds?
Apr 03rd, 2019 - 03:27 pm 0
Jonaz_BsAs
“oligarchic neocon”
Aimlessly throwing about meaningless monikers such as this one only shows that you don't understand one iota of what you're talking about.
Apr 04th, 2019 - 01:17 am 0

Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!