Chinese car sales dip in Oct but still robust

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, which overtook the United States as the world's No. 1 auto market in January, sold 923,154 cars last month, 79.6 percent more than a year earlier, state media reported on Saturday.

That would suggest a month-on-month drop of about 9.8 percent from September, when sales jumped 83.62 percent from a year earlier to 1.02 million units, according to data provided by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

However, Xinhua news agency said the fall was 8.1 percent.

The China Daily quoted Rao Da, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, as saying sales of passenger vehicles -- cars, sports utility vehicles, minivans and multi-purpose vehicles -- rose 52.4 percent over the first 10 months to 8.08 million units.

Speaking in Shanghai on Friday, Rao said he was confident that sales this month would surpass October's total as demand purchases normally peak towards the end of the year.

He said he expected total vehicle sales to top 12 million by the end of November -- 25 months ahead of the government's target -- and to reach 13.5 million for the year as a whole. That would be an increase of 44 percent over 2008.

In the first nine months, total vehicle sales -- including cars, buses and trucks -- were up 34 percent at 9.66 million.

Growth in the automobile sector next year could be 25 percent, the paper quoted Rao as saying.

Car sales, already rising sharply on the back of strong income growth, have received an extra boost this year from favourable tax incentives.

(Reporting by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)