Association predicts 11-pct drop in China's 2020 car sales

China's passenger car market will continue to stabilize in the second half of the year amid effective epidemic prevention, an industry association said, forecasting an 11-percent drop in annual sales due to COVID-19.

Although economic growth and the car market have improved, income of people is unlikely to see a quick recovery while the effects of government's consumption stimulus policies gradually weaken, which will put pressures on car sales, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The country's passenger car market saw a sharp contraction in the first quarter amid the unprecedented situation brought about by the novel coronavirus outbreak, but it started to come out of the abyss in the second quarter as the COVID-19 epidemic waned.

Retail sales of passenger vehicles exceeded 1.65 million units last month, up 2.9 percent from the previous month, CPCA data showed.

It was the fourth consecutive month of month-on-month sales increase. In the first half of the year, passenger car retail sales went down 22.5 percent year on year to 7.7 million units.