China's April auto sales rise 13 percent

BEIJING (AP) ? An industry group says China's auto sales rose 13 percent in April despite concern about a weak economic recovery while Japanese brands suffered less severe declines.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Thursday customers in the world's biggest auto market bought 1.4 million cars. It said total sales showed "clear improvement" at 1.8 million vehicles but gave no details.

Global automakers are looking to China to drive revenues but competition is increasing after sales growth that spiked to 45 percent in 2009 declined to more sustainable rates.

Japanese brands that have been hurt by tensions over a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo suffered a 4.9 percent decline in overall sales from a year earlier. Still, that was an improvement over the previous month's 17.8 percent decline.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-09-AS-China-Auto-Sales/id-15edac6af4444de7bf0fc0eeb759bab9

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