Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said, China's automobile sales fell for a seventh straight month in January, as demand slowed in the world's largest auto market.

According to the report, ыales dropped a 15.8 percent from a year earlier to 2.37 million vehicles last month. That followed a 13 percent drop in December and a 14 percent fall in November.

"Car sales in January continued to decline, and there was no sign of improvement. We estimate that February wholesales will also drop sharply. "The reason for the sales drop is still the slowing overall economy, and consumption decline in small- and medium-sized cities" said Xu Haidong, CAAM assistant secretary general.

However. China's sales of new energy vehicles continued to buck the trend, totalling 95,700 in January, an increase of 140 percent from a year earlier, CAAM said.