Jan 12, 2009, 9:56 GMT
Beijing - Annual growth of China's vehicle sales slowed to a 10-year low of 6.7 per cent in 2008, as the global financial crisis caused a drop in demand towards the end of the year, an industry association said on Monday.
Auto firms produced 9.34 million vehicles and sold 9.38 million in the world's second-largest market last year, against targets of 10 million units for both sales and production, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
China had reported double-digit growth of vehicle sales for every previous year since 1999, including a 22-percent jump in 2007, the association said.
The sales figures include exported vehicles but not imported ones.
Sales of passenger cars totalled 6.76 million units last year, up 7.3 per cent year-on-year compared with 21.7 per cent in 2007.
But car sales dropped by 8 percent year-on-year in December, following a drop of 15 per cent in November, prompting the government to consider measures to stimulate the industry, the official China Daily newspaper said.
The government is likely to announce measures such as tax and credit incentives to boost vehicle sales, the newspaper said.
Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, last week reported record sales of more than 1 million vehicles in China in 2008, but the group still missed its annual sales target.
Rival auto firm General Motors said it sold 1,094,000 vehicles in China last year, up 6 per cent but the slowest growth rate for six years.
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