The travails of the global car industry have been headline news over recent months, and so it’s no surprise that the automobiles and parts supersector, one of the three consumer goods industry constituents in the ICB classification, has shown one of the biggest declines in its dividend payout ratio. While Volkswagen has gone against the trend by increasing its ordinary share distribution this year, other carmakers have either cut (Daimler, BMW) or scrapped (Fiat, Renault) their dividends in 2009. The food and beverage and personal and household goods supersectors have shown themselves to be relatively recession-proof, so far, with steadily increasing dividends since 2005.

While healthcare has traditionally been seen as a relatively recession-proof industry sector, the slight decline in the payout ratio since the end of last year indicates that some companies are under pressure here, too. The major sector names—Novartis, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline—have maintained their dividends so far during the credit crisis, but some smaller companies have been unable to do so.

In the consumer services industry category, retail stocks have so far kept up their rate of dividend payouts, while media companies have shown a slight decline, and the average travel and leisure stock’s dividend yield has declined by over a percent when measured against current stock prices. Airlines have been a key influence—Lufthansa cut its payout this year, and British Airways, Air France-KLM and Iberia have all scrapped their dividends.

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