Automobile sales and output in China both hit record highs in November as demand continued to recover on government support policies, industry data showed on Dec 10.

China’s automobile sales jumped 20 percent year on year to 2.51 million vehicles in November, while output rose 17.7 percent from a year earlier to 2.54 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said in a statement.

For the first 11 months of the year, 21.8 million vehicles were sold, up 3.3 percent year on year. Production was about the same level, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier.

Passenger car sales grew rapidly in November, while Chinese-branded passenger cars took a larger share of the market with sales soaring 26.9 percent year on year, the CAAM said.

The automobile market cooled in the early months of 2015 as a result of the economic slowdown, fierce competition and purchase limit policies in first-tier cities. But both sales and output rebounded in October due to reduced purchase taxes.

China’s vehicle-purchase tax was halved from 10 percent to 5 percent for low-emission passenger vehicles, effective from Oct 1, 2015 to Dec 31, 2016.