Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's car imports have come down by about 20.5 percent in 2018 to reach 440,922 from 554,581 during the same period the previous year, according to business daily Al-Eqtisadiah on Saturday.

The car imports last year were the lowest in 14 years since 2005 and the drop has continued for the third consecutive year.

The value of the car imports has likewise dropped by 18.4 percent to reach SR35.6 billion in 2018 from SR43.6 billion in 2017.

The Kingdom imports sedan, four-wheel drive, trucks, buses and special cars for the use of the disabled people.

According to official statistics, the Kingdom has imported 113,659 sedan cars in 2018 with a drop of 88,501 cars compared to the previous year when the imports were 475,722.

The number of the imported trucks in 2018 were 44,464 against 67,247 in 2017 with a drop of about 18.6 percent.

The imports of trucks have gone down by 22,783 vehicles (about 33.9 percent) to reach 44,464 compared to 67,247 cars in 2017 while the imports of buses dropped by 2,333 cars (about 22.2 percent) to reach 8,169 from 10,502 the previous year.