Japanese car sales suffered a record slump last month after the earthquake and tsunami brought areas of the country to a halt.
Vehicle sales plummeted by 37 per cent to 279,389, the biggest drop for March since industry figures began in 1968, with Toyota leading the way, enduring a 46 per cent decline in sales.
Monthly sales at Nissan, the country’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, fell by 38 per cent to 45,700. Honda’s sales tumbled by 28 per cent to 43,329.
The figures confirm the profound impact that the earthquake had on the Japanese economy, with many analysts predicting that the country could lurch back into recession. Potential losses from the quake have been estimated at upwards of $200 billion (£124 billion). Akio Toyoda, the Toyota president, said yesterday that the company’s profits would be hit as a result of quake-related disruptions.
Separate figures showed that Japan’s large manufacturers had been optimistic on the eve of the natural disasters. The quarterly Tankan index of industrial sentiment climbed to 6 in March from 5 in December, according to the Bank of Japan, which said that nearly three quarters of the responses had come in by the day of the quake.
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Yesterday the first set of economic data was released showing the impact of the disaster on Japan. The purchasing managers’ index plunged 6.5 per cent to a two-year low, in the steepest month-on-month decline since the Markit survey began tracking Japanese manufacturing a decade ago.