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1st LD: China auto sales down 0.86 pct in February

Xinhua, March 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Auto sales in China, the world's biggest auto market, fell 0.86 percent year on year to 1.58 million units in February, compared with a 7.7-percent gain recorded in January, data from an industry association showed Thursday.

Sales of passenger cars decreased 1.53 percent year on year to 1.38 million units last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement on its website.

Sales are traditionally distorted by the effect of the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Feb. 8 this year, analysts said.

Consumers usually buy vehicles ahead of the new year, the most important holiday in the country, which leads to a spike in sales in January and a slump in February.

The country's vehicle output stood at 1.61 million units last month, down 1.31 percent year on year, according to the statement.

Auto sales rose 4.4 percent to 4.1 million units during the first two months of the year.

Chinese auto sales growth peaked at 45 percent in 2009 and fell steadily as the world's second-largest economy cooled and major cities tried to curb smog and congestion by imposing limits on numbers of new vehicles allowed.

Auto makers sold 24.59 million vehicles in China in 2015, up 4.7 percent year on year. It was the slowest pace in three years, following a 6.9-percent rise in 2014 and a 13.9-percent gain in 2013. Endi