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Autos

China's first-quarter car sales stall as economy slows

Sales of new commercial and passenger vehicles dropped in China as the economy slowed in the first quarter, raising doubts about the country’s full-year auto sales target, The Wall Street Journal reported. From January to March, sales of commercial cars fell 10.6% year-on-year to 1.02 million vehicles, while sales of passenger cars declined 1.3% to 3.77 million. Total car sales for the first quarter were 4.79 million vehicles, down 3.4% from the previous year, according to a statement from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The association hasn’t yet officially cut its 2012 target of 8-10% full-year growth, despite the disappointing first-quarter figure and concern expressed by some officials in early March. [Last year’s growth was] much lower than expected. That signaled to everybody that we’re going into one, two, three years of more realistic growth,” said Andrew Thomson, a partner in KPMG’s China automotive practice.

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