The Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors said Wednesday its members sold 88,700 vehicles in 2018, down 17 percent from 106,285 units sold in 2017, after high inflation rate, rising borrowing costs, soaring oil prices and tax hikes impacted demand.
“Full year 2018 Avid sales recorded 88,700 units sold amidst unfavorable economic conditions. With new product launches and economic pressures seen abating moving forward, Avid expects that the industry will recover from the sales slump in 2019,” said Avid president Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo.
Two other industry groups”•the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and the Truck Manufacturers Association”•earlier said combined sales slumped 16 percent in 2018 to 357,410 units from a record 425,673 vehicles sold in 2017.
Avid said the passenger cars segment, accounting for 35 percent of the total, declined 22 percent in 2018 to 30,960 units. Hyundai’s led the segment with full-year 2018 sales of 19,905 units.
The light commercial vehicles segment reported a sales drop of 14 percent, bringing the full-year sales tally to 57,027 units, down from 66,564 units in 2017.
Ford, which sold 22,946 units, ended the year as the best-selling brand in the segment.
Represented by JAC Automobile Int’l Philippines Inc., Avid’s commercial vehicle segment sold 713 units in 2018.
The Philippine economy grew 6.3 percent in the first three quarters of 2018, slower than 6.8 percent in 2017.
Avid said the 6.3-percent growth was still among the fastest in the East Asia and Pacific region.
Avid said it remained optimistic the local automotive would continue to rebound from a dismal performance in 2018.
“For this year, inflation may ease back to the two to four percent target based on the Central Bank’s assessment. In fact, inflation slowed to seven-month low at 5.1 percent in December 2018 as the liberalized importation of key commodities and aggressive monetary tightening took effect,” the group said.
Avid said it was expecting the industry to grow 10 percent in 2019.
