China's auto sales in 2014 exceeds 23mln but growth slows

China's auto sales rose to 23.49 million units in 2014 but registered a sharp slowdown in growth mainly due to restrictions on the sale of new cars in the world's largest auto market.
"Autos sales rose 6.9 per cent, or 1.51 million vehicles, to 23.49 million last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a statement.
China remained the world's largest auto market last year up ahead of the US.
Vehicle output stood at 23.72 million units last year, up 7.3 per cent year on year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Though China's economy is slowing down for the three years, the slowdown of the auto sales was largely attributed to the restrictions on sale of cars in 12 cities including capital Beijing and Shanghai to control the traffic and pollution.

Only 20,000 cars are sold in Beijing every month through a lottery system to acquire number plates for which buyers has to pay special price.