China's auto industry logs rapid investment growth in Jan-May

BEIJING -- Fixed-asset investment in China's automobile manufacturing sector logged double-digit growth in the first five months of the year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

From January to May, China's auto manufacturers saw investment increase by 11.2 percent year-on-year, up 0.8 percentage points from the first four months, the association said, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Jan-May auto investment growth was 5 percentage points higher than the increase of the country's total fixed-asset investment during the same period, the data showed.

The association's data also showed that China's auto production and sales saw a significant recovery in May, bringing auto-related retail sales to 318.6 billion yuan (about $47.55 billion), up 24.1 percent from April.

The auto-related sales accounted for 9.5 percent of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods last month, up 0.8 percentage points from a month earlier, the association said.