However, the virus is not the main cause of these losses. But how consumers, businesses and governments respond to the outbreak is of great importance.
People are more likely to stay home during an outbreak to avoid getting sick, which prevents them from traveling, shopping, or working. This limits demand for consumer goods and energy. Decisions by companies and governments to close stores and idle factories, meanwhile, reduce production.
and global consequences. We can’t predict it now,” said William Reinsch, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who was president of the National Foreign Trade Council for 15 years.
Past epidemics show that China's economy is likely to take a oman number data significant hit in the first quarter, Shearing said, but that will quickly fade from memory if the virus can be contained.
“As long as the factory closures do not lead to job losses, by this time next year the level of GDP is unlikely to be much different from what it would have been without the virus,” he said.
Why is China so important to the global economy?
China’s extraordinary economic growth over the past 40 years has made it the world’s second-largest economy, with a GDP of $13.6 trillion (compared to $20.5 trillion for the US). Annual growth of 7% or more – far more than other advanced economies – has become the norm.
China has achieved this position by displacing the United States as the backbone of global trade. Beijing is the world’s largest trader of goods and is rapidly catching up with the United States in commercial services, posting 18% growth in 2018. The long-standing practice of sourcing components and equipment from Chinese companies, as well as a huge and growing domestic market, has encouraged thousands of foreign companies to set up factories in China, tap into local distribution networks and open stores.
China is also central to a wide range of global supply chains: much of the world’s raw materials travel to China before being transformed into a manufactured product. Last year’s fight with the US over import tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of goods illustrated the power of the Chinese economy to disrupt and upend worldviews.
How is the virus affecting economic activity in China?
This continues to grow in scale and could have very serious
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