New Car Sales

It’s two months since we last looked at the figures for new car sales released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry.  The figures are here.  The relatively strong trend in new car sales has continued.  Of course, this is relative to the 2009 lows.  Figures are still substantially below those seen in 2007 and 2008.

The running total to the end of July for 2010 of 74,111 is nearly 16,500 ahead of the total new car sales for the whole of 2009 (57,635).  Retail sales in general may be going into reverse but in the motor industry they continue to improve.
The last five months of the year are generally very poor for new car sales.  In 2009 just over 7,000 cars were sold in the period from August to December.   Even for the “boom” years this is a very quiet time in the car showrooms.  This five month period had 20,500 sales in 2007 and 11,200 in 2008.  These correspond to 10.9% and 7.3% of the total sales for the year.  It will be interesting to see if the pick up in new car sales seen so far in 2010 will continue into this traditionally quiet period. Tweet

Core Deflation eases again

The headline figure from the July CSO Consumer Price Index release may be that we are headed for inflation once again but the measure of core inflation we have been following remains negative, though it did increase in the month.

The overall CPI recorded an annual decrease of just 0.1% in the year to July.  The measure of core inflation used here excludes the effect of Mortgage Interest and Energy Products.  The measure of core inflation comprises about 85% of the overall CPI.
After remaining below -2.5% for six months, core deflation eased in July and stood at –1.7% for the year. Tweet

Retail Sales Reverse

The June release of the Retail Sales Index from the CSO may have gotten more coverage for being inadvertently tweeted a couple of days before its official release but they provide further evidence that the Irish economy has not emerged from recession as was sung from the rooftops with the Q1 National Accounts.
We suggested from the May figures that retail sales were stalling, but now it clear that they are gone into reverse.  A graph of the annual changes shows retail sales are turning around but not in a direction to be heralded.  The actual index values can be seen here.

After moving into positive territory for one month in April the annual change in the value index has been negative since and in June retail sales by value were 2.8% below the level recorded in June last year.  The annual change in retail sales by volume has been positive since February but the recent trend could see this series also resume on a downward trajectory.
The monthly change was negative for retail by both value (-0.7%) and volume (-0.1%). See graph here.
If we look at the index excluding the large effect of motor trades we see a similar pattern emerging.   The graph below gives the annual changes in the retail sales index excluding motor trades.  The actual index values can be seen here.

Here both the value and volume series are negative, and heading deeper in that direction.  By value retail sales excluding motor trades are down 4.8% on the year.  This is not a good indicator of VAT revenues.  The monthly changes of the index excluding motor trades reflective the annual changes.  See graph here.
There’s not much talk of “turning the corner” now! Tweet

Credit Card Data

It is six months since we last examined the credit card data published by the Central Bank.  In most cases the conclusions we drew then are still valid.
If we first look at the headline figure of the annual change in total credit card indebtedness. 

Up until the beginning of 2007 the annual growth rate was consistently above 15%.  Since then it quickly collapsed and has oscillated around zero for the past 16 months.  The total credit card debt for June 2010 (€2,995 million) is less than the total debt for June 2008 (€3,001 million). 
There are also fewer issued credit cards being used.  Towards the end of 2008 there were nearly 2.4 million cards issued.  Now there are less than 2.3 million.  All of this drop has been in personal cards rather than business cards.  See graph here.
Looking in more detail at the actual amount of debt on our credit cards, and two of the key drivers of this statistic, monthly credit card purchases and monthly credit card repayments.

We can see that after increasing consistently through most of the decade, the total level of debt levelled off in early 2008 at around €3 billion, while the monthly spending and monthly repayment lines have been trending down for the past 24 months.  The following graph isolates the new spending and repayments lines.

If we further isolate new spending on credit cards as a barometer of consumer activity.   I think this is a better measure of consumer activity than the more cited measure of total indebtedness, which is also influenced by interest and charges as we will see below.  The following chart shows the annual change new spending on credit cards each month.

The contraction is new spending on credit cards has not ended.  Although the annual decreases have risen from the lows seen in early 2009, the amount of new spending on credit cards is still declining.  New spending in June 2010 was 8.2% below the level of new spending in June 2009.  The bite of the recession has not passed yet.
As seen above the total amount of new spending has begun to drift below the total amount of monthly repayments.  In fact for 24 of the past 30 months monthly repayments have been greater than new spending.

The peaks in this series occur in December of each year when new credit card spending is highest.  However, even with repayments exceeding new spending we have seen that the total level of indebtedness has been largely stable at around €3,000 million.  In fact, over the past 30 months back to January 2008, repayments have exceeded new spending by €956 million.  At the same time the total level of indebtedness has RISEN by €62 million.
So even though more has been paid off credit cards than has been spent on them the total amount owed has increased.  This is because spending and payments alone do not account for credit card balances - the extra amount is accumulated interest (and other charges).
The Central Bank do not give data on the amount of interest added to credit card balances but we can infer it given that the monthly change is approximately spending plus interest minus payment. The change may also be the result of some non-interest charges and duties. Looking at the approximate monthly interest payments and charges.

The peaks that approach €80 million correspond to April of each year when the annual government duty of €30 (previously €40) on credit cards is due.   Since January 2008 about €960 million has been added to credit card balances through interest and charges.
If we look at the effect this has on the average debit balance of personal credit cards.

The average credit card balance has not been decreasing.  In fact there has been no month in which the annual change in personal credit card balances has been negative.  See graph here. 
Our credit card balances are increasing not because we are spending more than we are paying (we do the opposite) but because of the interest on outstanding balances. Although we generally pay the equivalent of our monthly spend each month we do not pay down enough to cover the accumulating interest and reduce the outstanding balances. Tweet

Stamped out

The poster boy of the tax boom from the last days of the Celtic Tiger was undoubtedly Stamp Duty.  Though typically associated with property transactions Stamp Duty is actually a collection of six separate duties (two discontinued).

1. Conveyances of lands, houses and other property, leases and mortgages
2. Transactions in Stocks and Shares
3. Companies Capital Duty (discontinued in December 2005)
4. Cheques, Credit cards etc.
5. Insurance and Miscellaneous
6. Levy on Certain Financial Institutions (2003-2005, discontinued)

Some details of the duties can be found in the Statistical Report of the Revenue Commissioners.  Stamp Duty went from being a relatively insignificant source of revenue bringing in a couple of hundred million in the 1990s to bringing in nearly four billion euro at the height of the property-fuelled boom in 2006.  Since then it has collapsed.

Of course all taxes rose during the boom, but the rise in Stamp Duty was disproportionate.  By 2006 Stamp Duty had risen nearly 1300% from its 1993 level, while total tax revenues had increased by less than 400%.  See graph here. Stamp Duty made up about 3% of total tax revenue in the mid-1990s, but reached almost 8% of total revenue in 2006. Graph here.
What is of some interest is the source of the Stamp Duty revenues.  The following graph shows the revenues from the six different forms of Stamp Duty. 

The source of the “bubble” is easily identifiable!  As a proportion of total Stamp Duty, revenue from the conveyances of land and property rose from and 45% of the total in the mid-1990s to over 80% in 2006.  By 2009 this had collapsed back to 33%.
The following graph gives the proportions of total Stamp Duty revenue that each of the four remaining duties have comprised since the early 1990s.  2009 was the first time that Stamp Duty on the conveyances of land and property did not generate the largest revenue.

The increase in insurance Stamp Duty is due to an increase in the duty on non-life assurance premiums from 2% to 3% and the introduction of a 1% duty on life assurance premiums.  Without these duty from land and property conveyances would still be ahead and overall Stamp Duty revenue would be down about €200 million. Tweet