Gasgoo.com (Shanghai October 28) - China imported 712,000 vehicles in the first three quarters of this year, Caijing reported today. The statistics, which come from China Automobile Trading and market solution firm Sinotrust, show that imports in the quarter were 26.6 percent higher than last year. At the same time, 612,000 imports have been registered, 30.2 percent higher than the year before.

"Growth in imports has experienced a slight drop in the third quarter, which is a big change from increasing trends from the first half of the year," Wang Cun, a high-level executive from CATC said. However, the slight downturn has not halted the overall upward trend. Despite recent deflationary policies causing cash reserves to tighten and forcing some importers out of business, the market for imports continues to remain strong, Mr. Wang said.

According to Mr. Wang, the fourth quarter may see the market growth slow down even more. He adds that if the European credit crisis is not resolved in time, outlooks for next year may be even more pessimistic.

Meanwhile, growth in the luxury market has also slowed down, increasing only 73 percent from 2010, compared to over 100 percent year-to-year growth from the previous five quarters.