Signs of recovery for car sales

Car sales showed signs of recovery in September after months of sluggish growth on the back of credit tightening measures. Sales rose by 13.94% in September from August to 194,100 units, the China Daily said citing official data. In August sales grew by just 0.2% as a result of controls imposed on car loans and other lending designed to cool the economy. Output of cars in September also grew, up 6.32% in September � a slower growth than sales because of the high inventories held by manufacturers and dealers. Year-on-year growth figures were not given in the report. Industry analysts have said they expect car sales to grow by 10-20% in 2004 as a whole, a marked downturn on 2003 when sales almost doubled to more than 2 million units. Release of the September figures coincided with news that BMW had passed the 10,000 sales mark of its China-made cars, a year after beginning production. The company has a joint venture production plant with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings in Shenyang producing 3 and 5 series BMWs.