Rabat – Sales in Morocco’s automotive sector dropped to 11,333 vehicles in January 2023, down by nearly 9% from last year’s 12,439 vehicles, according to the monthly report from the country’s association for car importers (AIVAM).
Sales of passenger cars fell by 4.4%, with 10,493 vehicles sold at the end of January 2023, down from 10,977 vehicles a year earlier, the AIVAM report shows.
On their part, sales of light commercial vehicles (LCV) decreased by a staggering 42.5%, with only 840 LCVs sold in the first month of 2023, down from 1,462 a year earlier.
The drop in car sales in Morocco coincides with the tightening monetary policy in the county that is expected to drive consumers out of the market.
While the national purchasing power in Morocco was already sliding following the COVID-19 economic crisis, the trend was further exacerbated by inflation.
In January 2023, expenditures from Moroccan households have especially slowed down, decreasing from a 6.4% growth rate at the end of the third quarter of 2021 to only 2.4% a year later.
Adding to the domestic pressures, car sales have been internationally affected by supply problems. The semiconductor cold war between the US and China is causing shortages of a key component in the manufacturing of cars and is causing production to slow down.
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