{"id":6912,"date":"2012-01-10T20:33:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T18:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/s-africa-2011-vehicle-sales-boosted-by-lower-rates\/"},"modified":"2012-01-10T20:33:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T18:33:10","slug":"s-africa-2011-vehicle-sales-boosted-by-lower-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-2011-vehicle-sales-boosted-by-lower-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa 2011 vehicle sales boosted by lower rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Borrowing costs more affordable for consumers<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Sales in 2011 were highest in 5 years<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Outlook for 2012 positive<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Xola Potelwa<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>JOHANNESBURG, Jan 10 (Reuters) &#8211; South African vehicle<br \/>\nmanufacturers finished 2011 on a high, recording their highest<br \/>\nsales in five years as a combination of lower interest rates,<br \/>\nbase effects and concerns about the weaker rand currency<br \/>\nprompted consumers to buy more cars.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Vehicle sales are a key indicator of patterns in consumer<br \/>\nspending, which has traditionally driven the economy and their<br \/>\nbuoyancy could be a sign that households&#8217; pockets are improving<br \/>\nand the economy is on a sustained recovery after a recession in<br \/>\n2009.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The National Association for Automobile Manufacturers<br \/>\n(NAAMSA) said industry sales for 2011 were at an estimated<br \/>\n571,425 units compared to 492,907 units sold in 2010, a 15.9<br \/>\npercent growth rate.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sales recorded double-digit year-on-year percentage growth<br \/>\nfor every month except May, in 2011, when parts and some models<br \/>\nwere hard to come by after an earthquake and tsunami hit<br \/>\nsupplier Japan. Sales in September jumped to a four-year high of<br \/>\n30 percent year-on-year.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The underlying momentum remains positive and it&#8217;s due to<br \/>\nhistorically low interest rates. Vehicle affordability has<br \/>\nimproved quite significantly,&#8221; said Nico Vermeulen, director of<br \/>\nNAAMSA.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Borrowing costs more affordable for consumers * Sales in 2011 were highest in 5 years * Outlook for 2012 positive By Xola Potelwa JOHANNESBURG, Jan 10 (Reuters) &#8211; South African vehicle manufacturers finished 2011 on a high, recording their highest sales in five years as a combination of lower interest rates, base effects and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}