Panama auto sales continue downward plunge

The sale of new automobiles in Panama continues to plummet with a fall of  10.5 percent in the first two months in the first two months of the year, compared with the same period last year which was the worst for the industry in five years.

The slump has already led one major distributor to get out of the market and other deals are reported to be underway.

Sales in the first two months of 1918  were  7,843 units compared to 8,768 in the same period of 2017according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC) released Monday, April 16.

The figures 2018 corroborate the weakness of the market, which collapsed by 14.7% in 2017., which made it the worst year for the industry in the last five years.

Local analysts link the behavior of the sector to the slowdown in Panama’s economic growth since 2012, although the country remains one of the most dynamic in the region with an expansion of gross domestic product (GDP) of 5.4% in 2017.

Detailed by month, the fall in sales in January was 0.8% and in February it was 18.9%, compared to the same months of the previous year, says INEC.

The cars that sold the most in January and February were those of the regular category with 2,892 units, a drop of 22.2% compared to 3,715 in the same period of the previous year.

The light SUVs or SUV  segment registered the sale of 2,656 units, 8.8% less than the 2,913 of the previous period.

In contrast, the sale of luxury cars and pickup segments registered a contradictory blip with increases of 1.5 and 17.3%, adding 348 and 1,161 units sold in the first two months of this year, compared to 343 and 990 in the same period of 2017.