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Kenya’s new vehicle sales plunge 30% in first half

Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – The number of new vehicles sold in Kenya dropped 30.2 percent in the first six months of this year from the same period last year mainly due to high lending rates.

Most buyers of new vehicles, like light commercial trucks, rely on asset financing facilities by banks and interest rates were as high as 24 percent during the period.

The east African nation’s car market is dominated by low-priced second-hand imports from countries such as Japan, but investors monitor new car sales to gauge the health of the economy.

Vehicle assemblers, including GM, sold 6,946 cars in the period, down from 9,953 in the first half of last year, The Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers Association said.

Sales were not expected to pick up soon due to political uncertainty over an election set for next August and a new 20 percent excise duty on new vehicles imposed by the Treasury last month, the association said.

 

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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GM suspends Egypt operations due to currency crisis: company source

Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

CAIRO (Reuters) – General Motors has temporarily suspended its operations in Egypt due a currency crisis, a company source told Reuters on Monday.

Import-dependent Egypt has been in economic crisis since a 2011 uprising and susequent political turmoil drove foreign investors and tourists away. Dollar reserves have more than halved to $16.4 billion since then.

“The entire sector has a currency crisis we can’t make a car without some of the parts. We stopped production temporarily as of yesterday until we can clear the imports held up in customs,” the source said.

“There is still some leeway with the government and the banks to solve the issue.”

General Motors’s Egypt operation includes assembling trucks and cars. It makes 25 percent of Egypt’s vehicles.

Egypt’s central bank has been rationing dollars and keeping the pound artificially strong at 7.7301 per dollar through weekly dollar auctions.

 

(Reporting Ehab Farouk; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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