China auto sales up 2.8% in October: industry group

[SHANGHAI] Auto sales in China, the world's biggest car market, grew 2.8 per cent year-on-year in October, an industry group said Friday, a slight acceleration from the previous month's weak result.

A total of 1.99 million vehicles were sold in October, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement, adding production and sales remained "relatively stable".

The figure marked a marginal improvement from September, when car sales reached 1.98 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2.5 per cent, previous data showed, which marked the slowest growth for any month this year.

Passenger car sales gained 6.4 per cent from a year earlier to 1.71 million in October, the association said.

In the first 10 months of the year, sales of all vehicles - both commercial and passenger - rose 6.6 per cent year-on-year to 18.99 million, it added.

China's auto sales reached 21.98 million vehicles for the whole of 2013, helped by a recovery in Japanese brands which were hit by a political row between Tokyo and Beijing over disputed islands.

Analysts have said a slower economy, a government crackdown on corruption and an austerity campaign are expected to hurt sales this year.

China's economy, the world's second largest, expanded 7.3 per cent in the third quarter, its slowest pace since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009.

Despite the challenging operating environment, US auto giant General Motors said last week its China sales rose 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 291,371 vehicles, a new record for the month.

AFP