The firm added that the the declining trend has continued throughout the first quarter at 14%, mainly as a result of continually declining sales in Thailand, whose sales declined by 47% in March or 46% for the quarter. Significant and considerable growth in the other four markets could not offset the much bigger reduction by volume in Thailand. It added that market normalisation from the first car buyer scheme continued its mechanism behind the contraction in Thailand.

The reduction is in line with LMCA’s forecast and the firm has kept its 2014 sales outlook unchanged at around 3.2 million units.

In contrast to the significant contraction of the Thai market, sales continue to grow considerably in the other four markets. The most significant growth by volume could be observed in Indonesia, followed by the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. The growth, however, accounted for only 35% of the declined volume in Thailand.

Indonesia recorded another set of monthly sales at more than the 100k level, the sixth time since July 2013. March sales grew 19% to just below 102k. Sales expanded most in the Mini Car segment, boosted by the introduction of new models under the government’s Low Cost Green Car project since September 2013.

Expansion of the MPV/Minivan segments is also equally behind the March expansion in Indonesia. This was purely driven by the newly launched Honda Mobilio, as sales of the model alone were comparable to the increased volume of the whole MPV/Minivan segment.

As a result, quarterly sales increased by 13% and LMCA has slightly adjusted the yearly outlook upwards to around 1.2 million units.

March sales in the Philippines and Vietnam increased significantly with 26% and 42% growth, and sales registered at 22k and 11k respectively. Quarterly sales also grew in line by 24% and 38%. Annual sales are expected at 224k and 120k.Malaysian sales grew limitedly at 2% and 1% by month and quarter, mainly as a result of a combination of an expansion in the Sub‐Compact Car segment and a contraction in the Compact Car segment. The Toyota Vios and the Honda Jazz were behind the growth in the former segment, while the Proton Preve and the Nissan Almera were behind the reduction in the latter segment. Annual sales were expected to grow, also limitedly by 4% at 674k.