Under Temer, new vehicle sales had their worst January in 11 years.
New vehicle sales in Brazil plummeted, marking their worst January since 2006, pressured by high unemployment and tight credit; registrations of new cars, light commercial vehicles, trucks, and buses in Brazil totaled 147,25 units in January, a 5% drop compared to the same month in 2016; compared to December, a seasonally strong month for the sector, there was a decrease of approximately 28%; last year, the industry saw a 6,6% decline, and January was the worst month for the sector in seven months; having risen to power through a parliamentary coup, Michel Temer expressed optimism on Tuesday, stating that the year began with good news for the economy.
Reuters New vehicle sales in Brazil had their worst January since 2006, pressured by a high unemployment environment and tight credit, according to data released Wednesday by two sources with access to preliminary registration data.
New car, light commercial vehicle, truck, and bus registrations in Brazil totaled 147,25 units in January, a 5 percent drop compared to the already weak volume recorded in the same month of 2016. This volume corresponds to an average of 6,69 vehicle registrations per working day.
Compared to December, a seasonally strong month for the sector, there was a drop of approximately 28 percent.
The decline in sales in January compared to the previous year occurred even though last month had two more business days than January 2016.
Sales in January 2006 totaled approximately 133 vehicles, according to data from the automakers' association, Anfavea.
The organization released a forecast earlier last month projecting a 4 percent growth in new vehicle sales in Brazil in 2017, to 2,13 million units, which, if confirmed, will interrupt a sequence of four consecutive annual declines.
At the time, the president of Anfavea, Antonio Megale, commented that the organization's official expectations were lower than the projections reported by the entity at the end of 2016, given the political instability and still weak economic figures.
Of the total sales in January, 143,8 are cars and light commercial vehicles and about 3,5 are trucks, the sources said.
The ranking of car and light commercial vehicle sales opened 2017 led by General Motors, with sales of 27,6 units compared to 27,1 in January 2016, according to the first source.
The Italian-American group Fiat Chrysler comes next, with registrations of 25,8 units compared to 28,1 cars and light commercial vehicles in January of last year. Following that, the German Volkswagen recorded registrations of 18,1 new vehicles in January compared to 20,7 a year earlier.
The American automaker Ford registered 13,7 vehicle registrations last month, compared to 11,5 in January 2016, and Toyota Motor had 12,9 sales compared to approximately 12 in the same period last year.
(By Alberto Alerigi Jr.)