China Passenger-Vehicle Sales Tumble by 24%, Missing Estimates

China’s monthly passenger-vehicle deliveries fell the most in more than seven years after an earlier-than-usual Lunar New Year holiday season deprived dealers of a week’s worth of sales.

Deliveries of passenger automobiles, including multipurpose and sport-utility vehicles, dropped 24 percent from a year earlier to 1.16 million units last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday in a statement. Sales were projected to drop 18 percent, according to the median of a Bloomberg News survey of five analysts who predicted declines ranging from 8.5 percent to 30 percent.