SHANGHAI -- Helped by a long holiday, China's auto sales surged 20.3% year-on-year in October, an industry group said Monday.
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said sales reached 1.93 million vehicles in October, which includes a week-long break for the country's National Day when buying typically jumps.
Sales had already leapt 19.7% year-on-year in September.
In the first 10 months of the year, auto sales rose 13.5% to 17.82 million vehicles, the group said in a statement.
China, the world's largest auto market, has proved to be the savior of many foreign car companies in the face of weak demand elsewhere, especially in Europe.
The country's auto sales grew 4.3% annually to 19.31 million vehicles in 2012, hit by limits on numbers imposed by some cities to ease traffic congestion and tackle pollution.
Analysts are forecasting a better year in 2013, despite a growth slowdown in the first half of the year in China, which is also the world's second-largest economy.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
