BMW sales up in January on China boost - report

BERLIN (Reuters) - German luxury car maker BMW is set to sell more vehicles in January compared to last year thanks to rising demand in China, where group deliveries surged more than 20 percent , Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported.

Group deliveries, including the MINI and Rolls-Royce brands, increased in single-digit terms in the United States and were also up in core European markets, the newspaper quoted finance chief Friedrich Eichiner as saying.

BMW, the world's largest luxury car maker, is expected to publish official group sales data for January next week.

German rivals Audi and Mercedes-Benz posted double-digit gains in January deliveries, with Chinese sales up 18 percent and 45 percent respectively.

Separately, the CFO said BMW expects no major burden on results this year from the strong euro, thanks to currency hedging policies.

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Louise Heavens)