As many as 304,149 units of automobile were sold in the Vietnamese market in 2021, up 3 percent year-on-year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association said on Tuesday.

Specifically, sales of domestically assembled automobiles went down 10 percent to some 168,400 units, while those of imported ones rose 24 percent from the previous year to nearly 135,800, according to the association.

In December 2021, Vietnamese consumers bought 46,759 units, up 21 percent from November and down 2.3 percent year-on-year.

Regardless of difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, people's demand remained at a high level thanks to promotion programs by suppliers and new policy on registration fee reduction, leading to better automobile sales in the past few months, local experts said.

In 2021, Vietnam spent nearly 8.7 billion U.S. dollars on importing completely-built automobiles and components for assembly, posting a year-on-year surge of 36.2 percent, according to the country's General Statistics Office.