At the end of March, the stock of licensed motor vehicles of all type stood at 272,848, the National Statistics Office said.
Of these, 207,451 or 76 per cent were private vehicles, while commercial vehicles made up 44,693 or 16.4 per cent.
The stock of self-drive cars decreased by 143 vehicles over the previous quarter and also showed a decrease of 421 vehicles when compared to the same period last year.
New licences issued during the first quarter of 2006 amounted to 2,853. Private vehicles accounted for 2,049 new licences, or 71.8 per cent of the total. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2005, the total number of newly licensed motor vehicles registered a significant decrease of 88 or five per cent.
The total number of newly licensed used motor vehicles also registered a drop of 64 vehicles or 5.1 per cent when compared with the previous period