Economic figures suggest China's economy is beginning to slow down from freeamfva's blog
The lockdowns across China couldn't have come at a worse time for Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party and the economy.To get more Shanghai economy news, you can visit shine news official website.
But as dawn broke on Monday, for the 27 million residents of Shanghai and the 19 million in Guangzhou — who have been ordered into harsh lockdowns to contain the nation's worst-ever COVID-19 outbreak — the silver lining was that air pollution was noticeably improved.
Unfortunately for the 12.5 million living in Shenzhen, which emerged from lockdown almost a month ago, pollution levels were back to their unhealthy 'normal'.Large parts of China's economy are now lying idle. And while official statistics released on Monday show an economy still growing, economists fear that Beijing's attempt to conquer the Omicron variant could backfire spectacularly.
For an already weakened economy, the lockdowns have shut factories and created chaos among logistics operators as Shanghai port — the world's busiest — becomes a congested mess.
The country is still reeling from a property market meltdown, engineered in large part almost 18 months ago by Beijing as it attempted to deflate a speculative bubble, that sparked a wave of defaults among major developers resulting in plunging home sales and higher borrowing costs for would-be buyers.
That followed hard on the heels of a crackdown on some of the country's biggest technology companies and entrepreneurs, that was widely seen as a bid to dampen the egos of some of China's wealthiest.
China's economy grew 4.8 per cent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period a year ago, and little changed from the final three months of last year.
But most of that growth took place in January and February. March was a disaster, with workers grounded and hundreds of millions of consumers forced to stay home, igniting widespread unrest amid claims of food shortages.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales plunged 3.5 per cent in March.The crisis already is causing headaches within China's hierarchy.
Having set an annual growth target of around 5.5 per cent for the year, the initial reading came in well short, even though it missed the most severe impact of the lockdowns.Last week, Premier Li Keqiang called on local officials to minimise the economic impact of the lockdowns with "a sense of urgency."
Trade data pointed to a sharp slowdown, particularly in imports such as raw materials vital to maintaining the country's production output.Exports were better than anticipated, but it appears many firms have begun to run down their stockpiles.
On cue, Beijing rode to the rescue on Friday night with an initiative from the Bank of China to help commercial banks boost lending.But it was a half-hearted bit of horsemanship. Instead of cutting key interest rates, as widely expected after Premier Li's impassioned call, it kept rates on hold.
It was a move that confounded analysts and sent China's stocks lower on Monday.A slowdown in China, the world's second biggest economy, will have a serious impact on global growth.
And given our over-dependence on its growth, that throws yet another curve ball at the Reserve Bank of Australia on future interest rate moves.
But as dawn broke on Monday, for the 27 million residents of Shanghai and the 19 million in Guangzhou — who have been ordered into harsh lockdowns to contain the nation's worst-ever COVID-19 outbreak — the silver lining was that air pollution was noticeably improved.
Unfortunately for the 12.5 million living in Shenzhen, which emerged from lockdown almost a month ago, pollution levels were back to their unhealthy 'normal'.Large parts of China's economy are now lying idle. And while official statistics released on Monday show an economy still growing, economists fear that Beijing's attempt to conquer the Omicron variant could backfire spectacularly.
For an already weakened economy, the lockdowns have shut factories and created chaos among logistics operators as Shanghai port — the world's busiest — becomes a congested mess.
The country is still reeling from a property market meltdown, engineered in large part almost 18 months ago by Beijing as it attempted to deflate a speculative bubble, that sparked a wave of defaults among major developers resulting in plunging home sales and higher borrowing costs for would-be buyers.
That followed hard on the heels of a crackdown on some of the country's biggest technology companies and entrepreneurs, that was widely seen as a bid to dampen the egos of some of China's wealthiest.
China's economy grew 4.8 per cent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period a year ago, and little changed from the final three months of last year.
But most of that growth took place in January and February. March was a disaster, with workers grounded and hundreds of millions of consumers forced to stay home, igniting widespread unrest amid claims of food shortages.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, retail sales plunged 3.5 per cent in March.The crisis already is causing headaches within China's hierarchy.
Having set an annual growth target of around 5.5 per cent for the year, the initial reading came in well short, even though it missed the most severe impact of the lockdowns.Last week, Premier Li Keqiang called on local officials to minimise the economic impact of the lockdowns with "a sense of urgency."
Trade data pointed to a sharp slowdown, particularly in imports such as raw materials vital to maintaining the country's production output.Exports were better than anticipated, but it appears many firms have begun to run down their stockpiles.
On cue, Beijing rode to the rescue on Friday night with an initiative from the Bank of China to help commercial banks boost lending.But it was a half-hearted bit of horsemanship. Instead of cutting key interest rates, as widely expected after Premier Li's impassioned call, it kept rates on hold.
It was a move that confounded analysts and sent China's stocks lower on Monday.A slowdown in China, the world's second biggest economy, will have a serious impact on global growth.
And given our over-dependence on its growth, that throws yet another curve ball at the Reserve Bank of Australia on future interest rate moves.
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| By | freeamfva |
| Added | May 16 '22 |
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