China's automobile sales dropped 7.37 percent month-on-month to 1.52 million units in October, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Nov 9.

Automobile production stood at 1.57 million units last month, down 1.99 percent from September, the CAAM said in a statement posted on its website.

The October figure took auto sales in the first ten months to 15.16 million units, up 3.15 percent year-on-year. Auto output in the period grew 2.66 percent to 15.03 million units, the statement said.

Sales of passenger cars in October stood at 1.22 million units, up 1.42 percent from a year earlier but dropping 7.48 percent from September.

Passenger vehicle sales in the first ten months totaled 11.76 million units, up 5.86 percent from a year earlier.

Zhu Yiping, assistant secretary-general of CAAM, attributed the drop of passenger car sales to the government's new program to encourage fuel-efficient cars.

To encourage automakers to increase green-technology investment and reduce oil consumption, the government introduced stricter measures over the fuel-efficient vehicle subsidy program, which went into effect Oct 1.

"Judging from the current market status, sales in the last two months will be hard to maintain with last year's figures, and therefore sales growth for the whole year will most likely fall short of the January-October growth," according to the statement.