New vehicle sales show that the vehicle industry is "emerging from the extremely severe recession in the automotive market which had started mid 2006" and the lag effect of interest rate cuts will help support the recovery, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) said in a statement on Tuesday.

However, new vehicle sales for October 2009 have fallen by 16.9 percent, or 6422 units, when compared with the same month last year. When data from the AMH/AAD Group is factored in, the year on year decline is 12.5 percent, Naamsa said.

From the total sale of 31 622 vehicles, 74 percent or 23 410 were dealer or retail sales, 16.2 percent represented sales to the car rental industry, 4.9 percent were sales to government and 4.9 percent were sales to automotive industry corporate fleets.

New car sales - at 20 836 units ? fell by 9.7 percent when compared with the 23 075 new cars sold during October 2008. Although the figure is a year-on-year drop, it represents an improved performance in relation to previous months.

"Moreover, the selling rate of total new cars per day during October, 2009 had remained relatively high for the third consecutive month," Naamsa said.

Sales new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and minibuses fell by 3 171 vehicles or 25.6 percent when compared to the 12 375 units of the corresponding month last year.

Sales of vehicles in the medium and heavy truck segments of the industry also registered a drop. Sales of medium commercials at 627 units and sales of heavy commercials at 955 units show a decline of 22.7 percent in the case of medium commercials and 828 units - or 46.4 percent - in the case of heavy and extra heavy trucks and buses.

"The continued weakness in medium and heavy truck sales suggested ongoing lower investment spending in the economy," Naamsa said.

Vehicle export sales surprised on the upside and while total exports of 20 948 units was a drop of 25.4 percent compared with the 28 097 vehicles in October 2008, sales registered a huge improvement of 49.9 percent compared to September, when 13 973 vehicles were exported.

"The better performance suggests that a recovery in demand in a number of export markets is under way, probably on the back of demand stimulation packages and fiscal support measures," Naamsa said.