China Domestic Auto Sales Speed Up
12 August 2009
Sales of China's domestically-made automobiles totaled 1.09 million units last month, up 63.57 percent from the same month of last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.
It was the fifth month in a row that saw auto sales exceed 1 million units, CAAM said in a statement.
Over the January-July period, sales of domestically-made autos stood at more than 7.18 million units, a rise of 23.38 percent year on year, according to CAAM. The country produced more than 7.1 million units, up 20.23 percent.
The increase in July sales was boosted by surge in sales of passenger cars, which jumped 70.54 percent from a year earlier to 832,600 units last month, CAAM said.
From January to July, sales of passenger cars hit 5.37 million units, a jump of 30.91 percent from the same period of last year. A total of 5.27 million units of passenger cars were produced in the first seven months.
CAAM said the surge in sales was boosted by the improvement in the country's economy and the government's policies to stimulus car purchase. China cut the purchase tax on passenger cars to 5 percent for models with engine displacements of less than 1.6 liters.
In the first half of this year, auto sales hit 6.09 million units. The CAAM said earlier last month that it was "cautiously optimistic" about domestic auto sales in the second half of this year, predicting that China was expected to sell more than 11 million vehicles this year, higher than earlier prediction of 10.2 million vehicles.
Source : internet
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