China's auto sales in 2020 are forecasted to slide 2% year on year to around 25.31 million units, Xu Haidong, an assistant to the secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), said on December 12 as a representative of the association.

For the year of 2019, the CAAM said the annual sales were likely to fall 8% over a year ago. The prolonged sales downturn not only harmed companies' incomes, but weighted on their profitability. For the first ten months, the revenue of the whole auto industry dropped 3.16%, while the mass of profit even declined 14.29%. 

China new car sales 2020, China GDP, China automotive news

According to Mr. Xu, the performance of next year's auto market will be affected by three key factors. Firstly, China's 2020 GDP will still maintain a relatively high growth rate, but somewhat slower than that of previous years. The country's GDP advanced 6.0% year on year in the third quarter of 2019, slowing from 6.2% and 6.4% expansion for the second and first quarters. The yearly GDP may be lower than the expected 6.3%. In 2020, the growth rate is likely to further shrink as the sign of a mighty rising tendency has not appeared yet.

Besides, under the downward pressure on the economy, the employment and earnings for the disadvantage people would be hurt. Starting 2018, the growth in per capita income and expenditure has apparently slowed down, making people more scrupulous over consumption due to their lack of confidence in future income.