More lockdowns in China add to economic woes

China has now reported the highest number of coronavirus cases since May. Millions are now in lockdown, despite a relatively low number of actually reported infections. China reported 450 cases on Saturday, up from 432 a day earlier. Today there have only been 154 new infections reported. Epidemiologists outside of China predict that there is a broad under-reporting of infections in the country.

Bloomberg predicts that close to 30 million people are under some form of “movement restriction” as more Chinese cities and counties aim to quell resurgent Covid-19 outbreaks.

The rising wave of new infections has led to fresh restrictions and lockdowns this week in some of the largest population centres of the country, severely impacting the economy.

Lanzhou, the capital of northwestern Gansu province with a population of 3.8 million, has ordered its residents to stay home from this Wednesday, and a county in Anhui province went into lockdown last Friday. The Anhui province has a population of 60 million people.

Last week, an industrial hub in central Henan province, Wugang, announced a three-day lockdown over just one confirmed Covid infection.

China logged its slowest Q2 growth rate since Covid started spreading in Q1, 2020, with China’s GDP expanding just 0.4% year-on-year.

China’s economy has slowed to a crawl, certainly its lowest growth figures since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the punishing economic toll of the Zero Covid strategy, as lockdowns across the country stifled industrial production and consumer spending.

Last week’s Q2 result, well below market expectations, emerges amid rising global fears of a wide recession, as the war in Ukraine, supply chain challenges, inflation, and rising interest rates disrupt any global recovery.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera | Bloomberg