New car sales drop 94% at end-January

The Lebanese Automobile Importers Association (AIA) released its figures for new car sales for January, relayed by Byblos Bank’s Lebanon This Week. The AIA thus notes a drop of 93.8% year-on-year with 61 sales in the first month of the year, against 979 in the same period in 2020. A fall that could continue according to the association, which notes the possibility closure of several companies in the sector, as well as the dismissal of a large number of employees.

The AIA also estimated at 87.5% the fall in taxes paid to the Treasury in two years, from 265 million dollars in 2018 to 33 million dollars in 2020. In addition, the double explosion at the port of Beirut on 4 Last August resulted in tens of millions of dollars in damage to auto industry players, according to AIA estimates. The total bill has been estimated between 3.8 and 4.6 billion dollars according to the “new rapid assessment” (Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, RDNA) carried out by the World Bank group, in collaboration with the UN and European Union. Finally, the restrictive measures imposed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic for a year have also slowed car sales.

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The Lebanese Automobile Importers Association (AIA) released its figures for new car sales for January, relayed by Byblos Bank’s Lebanon This Week. The AIA thus notes a drop of 93.8% year on year with 61 sales in the first month of the year, against 979 in the same period in 2020. A fall which could continue according to …