Monday, February 17, 2020

Companies warn of economic crisis as China fights the coronavirus

The coronavirus and the panic surrounding it have put China into difficult place economically. Leaders in China predicted GDP growth of 7.5% at the beginning of the year, but those predictions have sharply decreased. Share prices in mainland China have fallen by 10% since January 20th. The quarantine of the Hubei province promises to have large-scale consequences on its own. Because of roadblocks, chicken farmers do not have enough feed and have suggested that their chickens might starve, which would likely cause a food shortage. Others think that if the lockdown continues, many could lose their jobs. Economic activity is stagnating because of the virus as few people want to leave their houses. Predictions for China's economic growth have been revised to be much lower than they were initially.

What do you think the future holds for China's economy if the virus and quarantine continue? What can the Chinese government do to manage the impacts of this?

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/02/04/companies-warn-of-economic-crisis-as-china-fights-the-coronavirus

1 comment:

Mary Thach said...

While the mass quarantine of workers and China have halted most production thus impacting supply chains, I do believe that the Chinese economy could recover if the cornavirus disappears quickly like the SARS virus is 2002-3 or a vaccine is immediately found. I think that the economy could recover because I do believe that the CCP will implement a stimulus package of some sort which means there could be an increase of building of infrastructure which leads to an demand increase of raw materials from resource rich countries that are completely impacted by the decline in Chinese demand.