China unveiled new incentives to revitalize automobile sales as part of policies to spur domestic consumption.

“As all aspects of the analysis have noted, the deceleration in auto consumption now is a major factor in the decline in consumption growth in 2018,” Liu Yunan, an inspector with the general department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said. The National Bureau of Statistics measured, the growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods in 2018 dropped by 1.2 percentage year-on-year. “If we deduct auto products and use the same formula to calculate, the growth rate of our economy will drop by 0.4 percentage points. In other words, the growth rate of auto consumption will drop by 0.8 percentage points. Therefore, we need to ensure steady growth in consumption and ensure that the major share of auto consumption is kept steady.”

Data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in 2018, China's automobile production and sales have completed 27.809 million and 28.081 million, the production and sales decreased 4.2 percent and 2.8 percent respectively compared with the same period as last year, and showed negative growth for the first time in 28 years.

“According to our estimation, China's car ownership per 1,000 people was about 170 in 2018, which is still far from the level of major developed countries. For example, the car ownership per 1,000 people in the United States is about 800, and in Europe and Japan it is about 500-600. Therefore, the future period of time, the automobile consumption potential is quite big,” Liu said.

Liu pointed out that these encouraging measures can guide the transformation and upgrade of the automobile industry and meet the needs of consumer upgrades to better combine, and further improve the matching level of supply and demand of automobile consumption.

(Compiled by: Zhao Yingbo)