That compared with an 18.5 percent increase in passenger car sales in 2007. Chinese consumers are increasingly feeling the pinch from the global financial crisis, and cutting back on auto purchases and other discretionary spending, J.P. Morgan economist Frank Gong said in a briefing Monday. 'People are losing high paying jobs which are being replaced by low-paying jobs in construction,' Gong said. 'Auto sales will continue to slow down,' he said. Sales of passenger cars in November totaled 522,800 units, down 2.9 percent from the previous month and down 10.3 percent from the same month in 2007. Sales in October rose 8.4 percent from a year earlier, the industry group said. Sales of sedans fell almost 11 percent to 389,600 units compared with a year earlier, while sales of multipurpose vehicles dropped 30 percent to 14,400 units. Sports utility vehicle sales fell 3.6 percent from the year before, to 35,000 units, it said. Dongfeng Nissan, a joint venture between Japan's Nissan Motor Co. and local automaker Dongfeng Motor Co., was among the few automakers to see sales rise: Its passenger car sales rose 60 percent in November from a year earlier to 33,417 units, the report said. Most other major automakers saw double-digit declines in sales. That included Shanghai GM, General Motors Corp.'s joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp., whose sales fell 35 percent in November from a year earlier to 29,469 units, the report said. While GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler automakers plead for billions of dollars in help from the U.S. government, China's own car manufacturers are also looking for ways to weather the slump in demand. Most Chinese automakers are state-owned companies that enjoy a degree of support from their local government owners. They also benefit from requirements that foreign automakers producing for the local market operate through joint ventures controlled by Chinese partners. China's Export and Import Bank agreed Sunday to give Chery Automobile Co., a partner with Chrysler LLC and one the country's biggest automakers, a loan of 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) to help support its international expansion, reports said Monday.