New car sales defy expected dip

Sales of new cars in Australia have remained flat, new ABS figures show.

Seasonally-adjusted figures released in the Lending Finance Australia report show 85,448 new cars were sold in Australia last month – just 31 fewer than in January. Analysts expected a fall of 2.5%.

“When comparing national trend estimates for February 2012 with January 2012, sales of passenger vehicles decreased by 0.6%, while sales of sports utility vehicles increased by 0.4%. Over the same period, sales of other vehicles decreased by 1.7%,” the ABS report says.

New car sales in Australia have remained between 81,000 and 87,000 per month since December 2010.Queensland is the only state to have experienced a gradual sales increase over the past 15 months. Tasmania suffered decrease over the same period.