France's PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe's second-biggest carmaker, had raised its 2005 China sales target 17 percent, an executive said Thursday, in a sign the country's auto market may be recovering.

It posted a 30 percent jump in January-May sales to 58,000 units, the PSA executive said on condition of anonymity. PSA had forecast previously it would sell 115,000 cars this year.

"The company is basically certain it will raise this year's China sales target by 20,000 units," the executive said.

Despite pegging China as a major area for growth to help it offset a saturated European market, PSA saw sales in the country slide 13 percent in 2004 to 90,000 units, hit by a clampdown on easy car loans.

It sold 42,900 Citroens and 16,000 Peugeots in the first five months of the year, he said, a country which accounted for just under 3 percent of its global sales of 3.38 million units in 2004.

"This gives us confidence for continued sales growth in the second half," the executive added.

Overall car sales in China rose 22 percent in May, according to official industry figures.

PSA had already logged a 44 percent surge in first quarter China sales of its Peugeot and Citroen brands, spurred by price cuts and new models.

Executives have said that PSA, which has just 4 percent of the world's third-largest vehicle market, intends to slow its original plan to double capacity in China by the second half of 2006 as the market is decelerating.

(Shenzhen Daily July 1, 2005)