New vehicle sales in Thailand fell by 33.2% to 73,242 units in April, from 109,658 units in the same month last year, according to the Federation of Thai Industries.
The ongoing political crisis, with its months-long anti-government street protests across the capital city Bangkok, has had a severe impact on the local economy. GDP shrink by 0.6% in the first quarter of the year, with the all-important tourism sector severely impacted by the unrest.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The Thai military took control of the government on Thursday, after the ruling party and the main opposition party failed to find a solution to the political stalemate.
Vehicle sales in the first four months of the year fell by 43.1% to 297,413 units, from 522,914 units in the same period of last year.
Vehicle production fell by 25.6% to 126,730 units in April and by 27.8% to 644,222 units year-to-date, while exports increased by 2.3% to 69,804 units in April and by 1.5% to 361,313 units year-to-date.
Honda revised its full-year forecast for the Thai market to around 1m units, from its previous forecast of 1.13m, compared with 1.33m actual sales in 2013.
