China's automobile sales fell 5.2 percent in March from a year earlier, marking the ninth consecutive month of decline in the world's largest auto market.

Sales fell to 2.52 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said.

That followed declines of 14 percent in February, 16 percent in January and the first annual contraction since the 1990s against a backdrop of slowing economic growth and China's crippling trade war with the United States.

New energy vehicle (NEV) sales, however, remain a bright spot, rising 85.4 percent in March to 126,000 units, the CAAM said.