Passenger car sales fall 0.4% in February
China's passenger-car sales fell in February for the first time in at least 16 months after fuel prices rose and the government raised the sales tax on small cars.
Industry sales of passenger cars and minivans declined 0.4 percent from a year earlier to 880,027 last month, said the China Passenger Car Association in an e-mailed statement.
It was the first drop since at least September 2009, according to the group's Web site.
China raised the sales tax on small cars this year to 10 percent from 7.5 percent, phased out subsidies for vehicle trade-ins in rural areas, and increased retail gasoline and diesel prices on Feb. 21.
Lower taxes helped mass-market automakers last year as overall vehicle sales surged 32 percent to a record 18.1 million units.
"We believe market sentiment is changing due to rising gas prices, higher borrowing costs and overall tightening in the economy," Scott Laprise, a Beijing-based analyst at CLSA Asia
Pacific.
Laprise lowered his forecast for China's auto-sales growth this year to 9 percent from 13 percent, saying CLSA research shows February retail sales at more than 60 dealers in 35
Chinese cities fell from a year earlier.
The CPCA numbers are separate from those provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, which reports vehicle sales later this week. CAAM is the only automobile trade organization registered with the Chinese government.
