China auto sales speed up 14.6% in June: industry group

Car sales growth in China, the top global auto market, accelerated for the second consecutive month, an industry group reported Monday, despite continued woes in the world's second-largest economy.

A total of 2.07 million vehicles were sold in China last month, up 14.6 percent from a year ago, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a statement.

The numbers were an increase on the 9.8 percent gain posted in May, which was itself an improvement on April's 6.3 percent.

China is crucial to foreign automakers, who have set up a series of joint ventures as they seek to make the country's growing middle class more mobile.

Auto sales reached 24.6 million last year, and in October the government sought to boost the market by slashing the purchase tax on passenger cars with small engines.

Sales of passenger cars reached 1.78 million units in June, up 17.7 percent year-on-year, CAAM data showed.

The pickup came despite protracted weakness in the world's second-largest economy, where growth slowed to 6.7 percent in the January-March period, the worst quarterly expansion in seven years.