Coronavirus: China vehicle sales reverse 21-month losing streak as infrastructure spending ramps up
- China vehicle sales increased 4.4 per cent in April compared to a year earlier, as truck sales jumped 34 per cent
- Higher demand for trucks is linked to Beijing's spending on infrastructure projects
China’s vehicle sales bottomed out last month, thanks to strong demand for trucks after the government stepped up its plan for infrastructure investment to boost growth this year.
Vehicle sales - for both cars and trucks - grew to 2.07 million units in April, up 4.4 per cent from a year before, ending a 21-month streak of falling sales that started in 2018, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
Retail sales among only large car firms in China were unchanged in April compared to the same month last year, according to new data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday.
Though overall sales of passenger cars were still 6 per cent below a year earlier at around 1.5 million units, they improved significantly from the fall of 80 per cent recorded in February, at the height of the coronavirus shock, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).