Growth in China’s auto market, the world’s biggest, will halve to 7 percent this year weighed down by a slowing economy, the head of an industry body said on Saturday. “Personally, I think growth this year can reach 7 percent,” Dong Yang, secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Shanghai. The auto industry would reflect that but typically lags the economic cycle by a bit.” CAAM had forecast China’s auto market, which grew by 13.9 percent last year, to expand at 8.3 percent in 2014.