Japanese car sales in South Korea posted a double-digit fall last month amid the trade dispute between Seoul and Tokyo, a government report showed Thursday.

The number of Japanese vehicles sold here was 2,674 in July, down 17.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. From the previous month, the figure tumbled 32.2 percent.

It came as Japan tightened regulations last month on its export to South Korea of three materials crucial for the production of memory chips and display panels.

Japan removed South Korea earlier this month from its whitelist of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedure. In response, South Korea also dropped Japan off its whitelist of trusted export partners.

Hit by the weaker demand for Japanese vehicles, the auto sale in the domestic market slipped 2.4 percent over the year to 151,091 in July.

Meanwhile, auto production expanded 17.4 percent from a year earlier to 359,554 in July, and the auto export grew 11.6 percent to 215,927 last month.

In terms of value, the car export advanced 21.6 percent to 3.82 billion U.S. dollars in the month.

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