China's passenger car sales surge in August

BEIJING - China's passenger vehicle market continued to register robust growth in August with rising retail and wholesale sales, industrial data showed on Thursday.

Some 1.87 million passenger cars were sold via retail channels in August, up 28.9 percent year-on-year, the highest growth rate in the past decade, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed.

Wholesale sales of passenger cars reached 2.1 million units last month, up 38.3 percent year-on-year.

Due to the continuous improvement of the logistics and supply chain, the car inventory is abundant, which has effectively stabilized the growth of the auto market, the association said.

In late May, China announced that it would halve the car purchase tax for passenger vehicles priced at no more than 300,000 yuan ($43,385) and with 2-liter engines or smaller. The tax cut will last from June 1 to the end of the year.

This favorable policy is gradually showing results, said the association, adding that some car companies stepped up efforts for sales promotion in August so as to make up for previous sales losses caused by the epidemic.