Car sales in emerging market giants India and China roared ahead in March as newly affluent consumers flocked to showrooms in the buoyant Asian economies, figures showed Friday.

March passenger car sales in India leapt 20 percent to 155,600 units from a year ago, while in neighbouring China they soared 63.2 percent to 1.26 million units over the same period.

"Underlying strong economic growth in both countries is really pushing the markets," Paul Newton at London-based IHS Global Insight told AFP.

Global automakers have been steering to China and India, the world's two fastest-growing major economies, as sales in most developed countries slumped in the fallout of the global financial crisis.

Government stimulus packages in both Asian nations, along with cheap financing and new model launches have helped drive demand among increasingly well-off consumers.

India's total domestic passenger car sales for the fiscal year which ended in March climbed by 25 percent to 1.53 million units from the previous 12-month period, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Last year marked the fastest pace of growth in six years but SIAM president Pawan Goenka said the "exceptionally high" rise for last year could be attributed to depressed year-earlier figures when India and the rest of the world were gripped by the economic downturn.

India's strong sales have made it the second fastest-growing vehicle market after China.

But India's performance is dwarfed by Chinese sales which soared more than 45 percent last year to 13.64 million units even as many other markets in the world posted negative growth.

China's vehicle market "is growing furiously" said Global Insight's Newton, with auto sales greased by Beijing's slashing of consumption tax on small vehicles and subsidies for consumers replacing old cars.

"In China, you have a government that is really supporting the auto market," Newton said.

The Chinese data for March released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers came as the country's biggest automaker, SAIC Motor, forecast first-quarter net profit would leap by more than 300 percent year-on-year, according to the state-run People's Daily Online.

But in both India and China, analysts say rising raw material costs pose worries for the sector. Iron ore producers have been raising prices steeply, pushing up the cost of steel -- a key vehicle component.

"There are some headwinds going forward with rising raw material costs which will add to ownership cost," Vaishali Jajoo at Mumbai's Angel Broking told AFP.

In India, the government has also raised excise duties on cars as part of a gradual unwinding of fiscal stimulus and, with domestic inflation running at close to 10 percent, the central bank is expected to hike borrowing costs.

The Indian automobile association said it expected sales growth to taper to between 10 and 14 percent in the year to March 2011. Slower double-digit growth up to the mid-teens was also seen for China, analysts said.

Still, low automobile penetration in India and China, where many consumers are buying their first cars, is expected to keep the market solidly underpinned and make the nation a lucrative destination for global automakers.

US auto giant General Motors, the biggest foreign automaker in China, reported March sales in the country soared 68 percent from a year earlier to a record 230,048 units, while its first-quarter sales were up 71 percent from a year earlier to 623,546 units.