Cash China Ecnomic Digest

CED Monitoring SHANGHAI-China's combined January and February auto sales grew by double digits despite a blip caused by the Lunar New Year holiday last month.

Deliveries of passenger cars and commercial vehicles rose 14.7 percent year on year in the past two months to 3.39 million units - a huge turnaround from the sales decline of the same period of last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday.

Passenger car sales, which include cars, multipurpose vehicles and sport-utility vehicles, surged 19.5 percent to 2.84 million units in January and February, posting the biggest increase since 2010.

The market's strong performance so far was largely based on the sales spurt in January as February posted a dramatic decline during the weeklong holiday when most showrooms nationwide were shut.

China's total vehicle sales fell 13.6 percent in February from a year earlier while those for passenger cars shed 8.34 percent.

Meanwhile, sales of Japanese brands fell 17.1 percent year on year in the past two months as tensions between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands intensified at the start of the year.

A government forecast in January said total vehicle sales should rise to 20.8 million this year, up from 19.3 million last year.

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