Stephen Howarth, the AEA’s agricultural economist said, “As expected, UK registrations of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) in December 2018 were well below their level in the same month a year ago.
In December 2017, registrations were inflated by the inclusion of a large number of machines being pre-registered in advance of the entry into force of new regulations. The December 2018 total of 849 machines was 38% down year-on-year but otherwise was the highest figure for December since 1994.
Of course, December’s figure also completes the annual registrations for 2018, which reached 12,102. This was just under 1% higher than the total for 2017 and the largest annual figure in four years. Once the impact of the December 2017 registrations is adjusted for, this suggests the market actually grew by between 5% and 10% during 2018.”
