Muscat: The number of new vehicles (including motorbikes) registered in March 2016 decreased 4.9 per cent at 8,519, compared with figures for the same month last year.
The greatest decline was recorded in the bikes segment, which saw a 30 per cent fall with just 61 new registrations, according to the latest report on vehicle registrations published by the National Centre for Statistics & Information (NCSI).
Over the three-month period ended on March, a total of 25,943 new vehicle registrations have been recorded.
Taxi vehicle registrations in March came down by 15.4 per cent to 52, while private vehicles declined by 8.4 per cent to 5,550. The largest number of new registrations were done in the private vehicles category.
Registration of government vehicles went up by a significant 52.1 per cent to 210, while the rise was 5.6 per cent for diplomatic vehicles, with five registrations.
There had been a 16.7 per cent drop in the registration of new driving school vehicles, which numbered 15, while rental vehicle registrations decreased 3.3 per cent to 403.
Registration of new commercial vehicles on the other hand posted a modest increase of 1.6 per cent to 1,951 in March compared with same month of 2015.
Temporary registrations stood at 266, marking a fall of 10 per cent over March last year.