South Africa-listed vehicle retailer Combined Motor Holdings (CMH) expects new vehicle prices to go up to 10% within the next four months, Moneyweb news portal reported CEO Jebb McIntosh as saying.

He said prices would nearly increase by 2% to 3% every month due to the currency exchange rate.

The exchange rate has moved from 15 to 18 rands to the US dollar, which is more than 10%, the CEO added. 

CMH reported a 12% increase in revenue to 6.15 billion rands in the six months to end-August 2022 from 5.5 billion rands year-on-year.

The higher revenue was driven by new vehicle and parts supply shortages, petrol prices surging, interest rate hikes and restrictive lending by finance companies.

The company anticipates a more challenging second six months, the CEO said.

Increasing interest rates and worsening power cuts have slowed the momentum of new vehicle sales, McIntosh asserted, adding they are set to continue to bring "despondency" to the economy.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)