Car sales in both Canada and the U.S. continue to hover just below record-high levels, according to Scotiabank Economist Juan Manuel Herrera.
The data was pulled from his latest Global Auto Report, which provides a wide-ranging view of the status of car sales across Canada and the U.S., along with Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
“Rising auto sales in Ontario, and to a lesser degree Quebec, have prevented a large decline in Canada-wide sales following a sharp contraction in the Western provinces in the first six months of 2018,” said Herrera in his report.
According to Scotiabank’s news release, Herrera has also noted that Canada and the U.S. are set to post a slight decline in 2018 as an increasing number of consumers adopt a more moderate approach to household consumption. The sales decline also comes amid a “reversal of base effect gains” in the U.S.
As for global auto sales, Herrera said they “continued to expand at a solid pace” in the first half of the year, which he attributes to better-than-anticipated sales in the U.S. and strong gains in emerging markets. However, global trade tensions could impact this growth.
“Cracks are beginning to appear in certain emerging economies,” said Herrera. “The Chinese auto market seems to have been impacted by the threat of rising U.S. protectionism while vehicle purchases in Brazil and Argentina have slowed in recent months amid a loss of economic momentum.”
In Europe, vehicle sales are experiencing strong growth in France, Germany and Spain, while the U.K. and Italy are seeing a decline due in part to political uncertainty.
Read the full report here.
