BERLIN (Reuters) -BMW sold nearly as many cars in the third quarter as it did in the same period a year before, after the war in Ukraine and supply shortages led to a drop in deliveries in the first half of 2022, said the German carmaker on Monday.

Group sales were down 0.9% compared with the same quarter of 2021, to 587,795 vehicles. That’s a smaller dip than seen in previous quarters, when lockdowns in China and the lack of chips had made things difficult for the Munich-based company.

Business in China was especially strong, up 5.7%, as well as in the United States, which saw an increase of 3.8%. Europe, on the other hand, saw an 11.1% decrease in the third quarter.

For the first nine months of 2022, the carmaker saw a year-on-year fall of 9.5% for Group sales to 1.75 million vehicles.

The carmaker confirmed its full-year forecast for 2022 of achieving sales levels slightly below the previous year.

(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Christina AmannEditing by Paul Carrel and Rachel More)