China posted the third monthly decline in car sales this year in November, and analysts are forecasting that annual growth in car sales will decrease to a single digit for the first time in recent years.

Passenger car sales came to 522,800 units in November, down 10.28 percent from a year earlier, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. Sedan sales slipped 10.94 percent year-on-year to 389,600 units.

Analysts agreed China will have to say goodbye to the 20 percent-plus growth rate in recent years, and said their expectation that sales and production this year will break the 10-million-unit barrier cannot be reached. Passenger car sales stood at 6.16 million units in the first 11 months.