Sales of cars declined by 23.8% in January from a year earlier to 1.16m, according to data issued by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
The fall appears to have been partly driven by the timing of the annual Chinese (lunar) new year holiday when around five working days were lost.
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The CAAM forecasts that the annual sales of vehicles in China will be around 20m units in 2012, growing at a rate of about 8%.
