SHarjah24 - Reuters: China's auto sales surged 23.8% in June from a year earlier, the first increase in four months after authorities cut taxes and offered subsidies to encourage car purchases as COVID-19 curbs eased.
Sales in the world's biggest car market rose to 2.5 million vehicles in June, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed on Monday.
Sales for the first half of the year, hit hard by stringent lockdowns in the commercial hub of Shanghai and other cities between March and May, were 6.6% lower than the corresponding 2021 period.
June sales were up 34.4% from May, with sales of new energy vehicles, among them electric, plug-in petrol-electric hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell versions, climbing 129.2% from the previous year.
Last month the central government halved the auto purchase tax to 5% for cars priced less than 300,000 yuan ($45,000) with 2.0-litre, or smaller, engines.
That tax break has affected purchasers of close to 1.1 million vehicles, bringing a tax loss of 7.1 billion yuan ($1 billion) for the government, the official People's Daily said.
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