An industry group said that auto sales in China, the world's biggest car market, accelerated in July, growing 6.7% to 1.62 million vehicles.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in a statement said that for the first seven months of 2014, auto sales reached 13.30 million vehicles, up 8.2% on the same period last year.

China has become critically important to foreign carmakers, given the size of the market and weak sales elsewhere in the world.

China's full year auto sales hit 21.98 million vehicles last year, when a recovery in Japanese brands offset the impact of slowing economic growth.