BEIJING, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Vehicle sales in China fell 1.8percent in September from a year earlier as Japanese automakers'sales collapsed, adding to downward pressures from a slowingeconomy and rising fuel costs that have weighed on the world'sbiggest auto market.
September's was the first monthly fall since Nov. 2011,raising the risk of a deeper slump which would harm Chinese andforeign carmakers alike.
A territorial row between China and Japan, which spurredviolent protests in some parts of China last month as well ascalls for boycotts of Japanese products, hammered Japanese carsales, a shift from which European and South Korean firms havebeen the chief beneficiaries.
(Reporting by Fang Yan in BEIJING and Kazunori Takada inSHANGHAI; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
((yan.fang@thomsonreuters.com)(86 10 6627 1233)(ReutersMessaging: yan.fang.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: CHINA AUTOS/