Vehicle sales in China, the world's largest car market, increased at their slowest pace in three years in 2015, industry group data showed yesterday, as slowing growth and volatile stock markets hit demand. A total of 24.6 million cars were sold last year, up 4.7 percent from 2014, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). That was down from a 6.9 percent rise in 2014 and marked the slowest growth since 2012 when sales increased by 4.3 percent, previous CAAM figures showed. CAAM secretary general Dong Yang estimated that purchase restrictions imposed in big cities pulled auto sales growth down by up to eight percentage points, while extraordinary swings in the country's stock markets were responsible for a two percentage point drop. Sales may gain around six percent this year to top 26 million units, CAAM said. US auto giant General Motors delivered a record 3.61 million vehicles in China in 2015, up 5.2 percent from the previous high in 2014, China's top foreign auto maker by sales.