Higher new vehicle sales* in March are another sign that the first quarter was a period of economic recovery in Alberta.

At $1.1 billion, sales were 77 per cent higher in March 2021 than in March 2020 when the pandemic was declared. More telling is that sales were 4 per cent above where they were in March 2019 before the pandemic was in play.

Sales over the first quarter of 2021 were 7 per cent higher than over the same period in 2019.

The number of new vehicles sold was, however, down slightly over the first quarter (-0.5 per cent) compared to 2019.

Nationally, the dollar value of new vehicles sales in March was up by 87 per cent compared to March 2020 and by 1 per cent over March 2019.

*Vehicle sales rise and fall on a seasonal basis so we compare the same month across different years rather than month-to-month changes. (Seasonally adjusted data on new vehicle sales are not available from Statistics Canada.)

Answer to the previous trivia question: Alberta’s official fish is the bull trout.

Today’s trivia question: What was the best-selling new vehicle in Canada in 2019?