Sales of vehicles excluding trucks and buses in Brazil have risen 3.2 percent in October from a month earlier and 8.6 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from Brazil’s car dealership association Fenabrave.
Sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles were 286,483 units through yesterday, compared with 277,614 units sold in September and 263,819 at the same month last year, according to Fenabrave’s website.
President Dilma Rousseff announced on Oct. 24 a decision to extend until the end of the year the tax cuts on car purchases, which were scheduled to expire at the end of October.
The measure has helped fuel a rebound in car sales and economic growth in the third quarter, after purchases fell 31 percent in September from a record 420,080 in August.
“We don’t want any price increases at the end of the year,” Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters on Oct. 24. “If we suspend the exemption, companies are probably going to increase prices in November and December. We want prices to remain low.”
This extension of the IPI tax cuts is “probably” the last one, Mantega said.
Source: Bloomberg
