Auto manufacturer Volvo Car Group expects the Chinese and U.S. markets to support a turnaround in its global sales in 2013 after reporting its first loss in three years.

Volvo's global retail sales declined 6.1 percent year on year to 421,900 units in 2012, dragged down by a 10-percent decrease in the European market.

Hakan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo, said the United States, its largest market, and China, its second largest overseas buyer, will help raise its shrinking global sales. The company expects to sell 7-8 percent more vehicles in China and 5 percent more in the United States in 2013.

Volvo was first sold to Ford Motor Co. in 1999 and then to Chinese automaker Geely Automobile for $1.8 billion in 2010. Li Shufu, Geely's chairman of the board, said the company has achieved sound results in the Chinese market after two years of adjustment and integration. The company has forecast sales of 200,000 units in the Chinese market by 2020.