China's car sales fall in July

Car sales in China dropped in July, with 1.808 million vehicles sold last month, down 4.3 percent year on year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said Monday.

The decline narrowed 5.3 percentage points from June, said Chen Shihua, an assistant to the secretary-general of the CAAM.

Meanwhile, car sales in July fell 12.1 percent compared with June, according to Chen.

In the first seven months, the country sold a total of 14.132 million vehicles, down 11.4 percent year on year, Chen said.

Vehicle output amounted to 13.933 million in the January-July period, down 13.5 percent from one year earlier.

In addition, new energy vehicles also saw a year-on-year decrease in sales last month, Chen added.

CAAM data showed that the sales of new energy vehicles maintained an overall steady growth in the January-July period, surging 40.9 percent year on year to 699,000.

Xu Haidong, another assistant to the CAAM secretary-general, predicted that consumers' wait-and-see attitudes will change with the implementation of a sequence of favorable policies and the emergence of more models that meet new emission standards.