China passenger car sales growth slows in March

China, the world's biggest auto market, saw some 840,000 passenger cars sold in March 2010, up around 40% from a year earlier, slower than the growth of 55.25% in February, predicted the National Passenger Car Information Exchange Association.

The slowing growth is ascribed to the mounting inventory pressure in the month, said a distributor in the Beijing Asian Games Village Auto Market, noting that sales volume is likely to continue the downward path in April. In March, passenger car sales volume in second- and third-tier cities like Chengdu, Qingdao, Wuhan, Hangzhou, and Chongqing, slipped into a decline as demand cooled down.

In spite of the decrease in sales growth, the auto market is expected to maintain a stable growth in the entire 2010, buoyed by an economic revival, pointed out Xu Changming, a senior economist at the State Information Center, adding that auto and passenger car sales growths are possible to fall to 17% and 21.5% this year from 46.15% and 52.93% in 2009, respectively.