China Aug car sales up 59.3 pct from yr ago -CATRC

BEIJING, Sept 1 (Reuters) - China's passenger car sales in August rose 59.3 percent from a year earlier to 977,300 units, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATRC) said said on Wednesday.

That marks a sharp improvement compared with July when car sales rose 15.4 percent year-on-year, data provided by government-affiliated CATRC showed.

Still, growth was slower than in the first few months of the year when monthly auto sales had topped the 1 million units mark.

Break-neck expansion in the world's biggest auto market has been tapering off since the second quarter as the government presses the brakes to keep the economy from overheating.

Industry executives and analysts are cautious about the outlook in the rest of the year on a slowing economy and high comparison base a year earlier. (Reporting by Fang Yan and Ken Wills)