Sales of passenger cars fall in January

Source: Xinhua | 2017-02-10

CHINA’S passenger vehicles sales fell in January, the first year-on-year drop in almost a year, data showed yesterday.

A total of 2.12 million passenger vehicles were sold in January, down 9.8 percent, marking the first year-on-year drop since February 2016, said the China Passenger Car Association.

The association attributed the fall to the Spring Festival holiday and the effects of fewer preferential car purchase policies.

China has been the world’s largest car buying market for eight consecutive years. About 28 million cars were sold in China in 2016, up 13.7 percent year on year thanks to preferential purchase policies and other government measures, the Ministry of Commerce said.

In 2017, the Ministry of Finance will continue its preferential car purchase taxation policy but reduce the tax cuts.

Growth in China’s auto sales this year could slow to 2-6 percent, MOC said.