Strong demand for new vehicles last year continued in January, with sales up 124 percent from the same period a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on its website.

The January sales also marked a 16.8 percent increase from December, it said.

Auto sales topped 1.66 million while output of new vehicles reached 1.61 million, according to CAAM.

Although the strong growth was partly due to last year's weak January figures, steady economic growth combined with government sales incentives helped push auto sales to a new monthly record, CAAM said.

The previous monthly record was 1.4 million cars sold in December 2009.

Compared with December figures, auto sales and production grew 16.8 percent and 5.0 percent respectively in January.

Passenger car sales were up 113.2 percent to 1.32 million units last month, while production was 1.24 million units, up 134 percent year on year.

Statistics from CAAM confirmed last month that China had overtaken the United States to become the world's top auto maker and market in 2009.

China's sales for the year hit 13.64 million units while production reached 13.79 million units.

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