Vehicle sales slump continues

Sales for motor vehicles and parts suffered the biggest decline of all retail industries in the June 2022 quarter after tumbling by $230.5 million when compared with the first three months of the year.

Seasonally adjusted figures show consumers spent $3.716 billion on vehicles and parts in the June quarter, which was down 5.8 per cent from $3.946b in the March quarter. 

The latest drop in activity follows a 5.3 per cent fall between the December 2021 and March 2022 quarters, according to Stats NZ.

Melissa McKenzie, business financial statistics manager, says: “Some vehicle dealers commented in their surveys that supply issues led to lower sales this [June] quarter.

“On April 1, 2022, more vehicles became eligible for the clean car rebate and fees came into effect for high emission vehicles. This may also have influenced the peak seen in vehicle and parts retailing in the December 2021 quarter and the fall in the June 2022 quarter.”

Overall, the volume of total retail sales fell 2.3 per cent in the June 2022 quarter, after a 0.9 percent decrease in the March 2022 quarter when adjusting for price and seasonal effects.

It is the second time retail sales volumes have fallen over two consecutive quarters since the Covid-19 outbreak. The first was in the March and June 2020 quarters.

Motor vehicles and parts was among 10 of the 15 retail industries that recorded lower sales volumes in the June 2022 quarter compared with the March 2022 period.

Electrical and electronic goods retailing had the second-largest dollar decrease in sales volumes, down $180.9m or 6.1 percent.

The largest rise was in the food and beverage services category, up $77.4m or 3.3 percent.

Without accounting for price effects and seasonal patterns, in actual terms, the value of total retail sales was $28.5b in the June 2022 quarter, up $1b or 3.8 per cent compared with the June 2021 quarter.