China's auto vehicle sales rose last month for the first time in three months.

Sales of cars, sport-utility and multi-purpose vehicles climbed 8.4 percent to 538,500 units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co and Shanghai Volkswagen Co, the German car maker's China ventures, sold a total of 73,223 cars last month, the statement said. GM's Shanghai venture sold 29,416 passenger cars. China's sales of vehicles, which include passenger cars, buses and trucks, rose 3.37 percent last month from a year earlier to 715,700 units, the association said in a separate statement yesterday.