According to the lunar calendar, this is the year of the pig but, clearly, the greed that it symbolises does not extend to the desire to buy a new car in China.
In December, Chinese car sales were down a fifth from the previous year, while for the whole of 2018 they were lower than the previous year for the first time in about two decades. The US dream of car ownership, which 20 years ago was the definition of everything good that America represented, seems to be dying across the Pacific.
Most analysts think there is worse to come. “Inventory is at a multiyear high and volumes have deteriorated continuously,” said Goldman Sachs analysts, predicting that Chinse car sales will be lower in 2021 than they were in 2017.