China’s vehicle sales dipped 0.25% in April in their first year on year fall in over two years as the market’s explosive growth showed its clearest sign yet of cooling, data showed on Tuesday (10 May, 2011).
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement cited by AFP that 1.55m units were sold last month.
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That was the first year on year decline since January 2009 when vehicle sales dropped 14.35% to 735,500 units due to the impact of the global financial crisis.
Sales in April were also down 15.12% from the previous month.
The pace of sales growth in China has slowed since mid-2010 as the government began withdrawing stimulus measures aimed at cushioning the impact of the worldwide economic downturn.
The government also raised purchase taxes on small passenger cars to 10%, starting this year, ending an incentive that helped the nation overtake the US as the world’s top auto market in 2009.
Some cities, including Beijing, have also introduced measures such as annual quotas of new car number plates to rein in buying as part of efforts to ease chronic gridlock and air pollution, AFP noted.
Sales rose 5.95% in the first four months of 2011 to 6.53m units, much slower than the growth rate of over 32% in full year 2010.
