Rachel Hou / Shanghai Daily news

The Chinese car market will see growth rate of 15 percent next year, today's Shanghai Morning Post said, citing Chen Qingtai, vice president of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC).
"We expect the sales growth rate for the domestic car market to be 15 percent in 2005, almost the same as this year," said Chen at yesterday's China Automotive Industry Forum 2004.
Official statistics show that the growth rate of car sales declined from 75 percent in 2003 to 15 percent this year. Meanwhile, 113,400 surplus vehicles remained unsold in the first seven months of this year.
Chen attributes the declining growth rate to the government's macro-economic control measures and banks' stricter policies for car loans. Also, the recent price wars by carmakers have buyers waiting to see if prices will go even lower.