Shanghai: China`s auto sales reached 1.72 million vehicles in August, a rise of just 4.0 percent compared with the same month a year ago, an industry group said Thursday.
In July sales had climbed 6.7 percent year-on-year to 1.62 million vehicles, previous figures showed.
For the first eight months of the year, the country`s auto sales rose 7.7 percent to 15.02 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement.
China is critically important to foreign car manufacturers, which dominate the market, given massive demand from a growing middle class and weaker sales in other parts of the world such as Europe.
But the recent fining of several foreign auto firms for allegedly making use of a dominant market position to control prices, deemed to be in violation of China`s anti-monopoly law, has taken some of the shine off its appeal.
Authorities on Thursday fined an affiliate of German automaker Volkswagen more than $40 million for price-fixing for cars and repair services in the central province of Hubei, according to a statement.
Separately, the government fined Chrysler of the United States -- which has merged with Italy`s Fiat -- over $5 million for recommending prices to dealers in Shanghai, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Still, foreign companies continue to record healthy sales.
US auto giant General Motors set a new record for August as its China sales surged 14.0 percent year-on-year to 280,178 vehicles, the company said.
Competitor Ford sold 77,506 vehicles, up 9.0 percent from the same month last year.
Full-year auto sales in China reached 21.98 million vehicles last year, when a recovery in Japanese brands offset the impact of slowing economic growth.