The FINANCIAL — Sales of new cars in China fell in July for a second month in a row, with weak demand further dented by a stock-market rout and as auto makers continued to struggle with high inventories, according to Nasdaq.
China sold 1.27 million passenger cars last month, down 6.6% from a year earlier, the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on August 11. In June China’s passenger-car sales fell 3.4% year-over-year, the first decline in more than two years.
Total sales of automobiles, including both passenger and commercial vehicles, fell 7.1% in July from a year earlier to about 1.5 million vehicles, the auto-manufacturers’ group said.
Growth in the world’s largest auto market has stalled this year due to a combination of factors ranging from a slower economy to the government’s continued crackdown on corruption and increased curbs on car ownership as cities try to deter congestion and pollution.
In July demand was dealt another blow by a volatile stock market, which had surged higher earlier in the year before tumbling in mid-June.
In the period from January to July, China passenger-car sales rose by a disappointing 3.4% to 11.36 million vehicles, a rate far below gains seen in recent years.
The auto-manufacturers’ group last month slashed its forecast for China’s auto sales to a 3% year-over-year gain from 7% previously. In the period from January to July, sales of automobiles totaled 13.35 million, almost unchanged from the year-earlier period, it said.
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