Bharat Bhise on Global News: China’s Economy Slows Down Amidst Coronavirus

Bharat Bhise looks on the latest news about the second-largest economy in the world, China.

With the novel coronavirus in China killing around 1,900 people in total and has afflicted tens of thousands of people, the question remains on how quickly the country will be able to go back to its normal operations, especially as the epidemic has already slowed down China’s economy.

According to a Bloomberg Economics report, China’s economy is only at 40% to 50% during the days leading to the Lunar New Year due to the coronavirus scare.

Small Businesses Greatly Affected

Small noodle shops and even world-renowned stores like Starbucks have less traffic than ever. The government has reported that only 30% of small businesses are currently running. Bharat Bhise projects that the best-case scenario for these companies is that they’ll be back to normal operations by mid-March.

Trips within and to and from China by planes, automobiles, trains, and boats in the days leading to the Lunar New Year are also lower compared to last year’s.

Slowed Human Movement

There are only around 20% of trips being taken each day. This means that more people haven’t come back to work, and with buses only allowed to operate at 50% capacity, it may take a while before everyone gets back to their workplaces.

After browsing the report, Bharat Bhise notes that larger industrial firms are faring better than smaller businesses, with almost 70% of manufacturing companies operating since the second week of February. More than 90% of the closed companies have been expected to return by last week.

Nevertheless, 78% of these companies were still unable to come back due to a lack of workforce as the workers are still quarantined in their hometowns. As of February 23, around 10 million workers are still stuck. Approximately 1.7 million of them were from the Hubei province.

The coronavirus outbreak has left China crippled for the last few weeks. With that, the country will need a strong rebound to get back on their feet. Despite this, Bharat Bhise believes that China can bounce back.