Chinese Exports Drop Corona Virus Impact
China's exports have suffered from a corona virus outbreak ( Covid-19 ). Many entrepreneurs have postponed operations, disrupting the global supply chain. Quoting AFP, Saturday (7/3), the value of Chinese exports fell 17.2 percent or the biggest decline since February 2019 during a trade war with the United States. In addition, the value of Chinese imports also dropped by 4 percent.
From the results of a poll conducted by Bloomberg to a number of economists, estimates that exports will fall less, by 16.2 percent, and also expected a sharper decline in the import sector by 16.1 percent.
The corona virus outbreak in China keeps consumers at home during the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of January, making business run slower, because the Chinese government is still focused on reducing the spread of the corona virus, which has killed more than 3,000 people in China.
The value of trade between China and the US also fell 40 percent in the first two months of 2020 from US $ 42 billion last year to US $ 25.4 billion. As an early sign of the economic impact of the corona virus, manufacturing industry activity dropped to its lowest level in February, with non-manufacturing industries also plummeting.
Deeper Impact
The authority states that data relating to China's economic growth in January and February will be combined. This is in line with a number of other indicators released. A report written by Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said that the decision to merge data in January and February means "published growth rates will not fully reflect the level of recent weakness."
The reason, the impact of the corona virus outbreak began to disrupt the Chinese economy in February. He added, the decline in the trade sector was "much deeper" than estimated trade data. The corona virus outbreak was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, which is a major industrial area with a population of up to 56 million people.
Due to the corona virus outbreak, the Chinese government locked the area. Travel and quarantine restrictions are also still in place. Disruption due to the corona virus also questions China's ability to partially end trade agreements with the United States signed in January. Under the agreement, China is committed to increasing purchases of goods and services from the US by US $ 200 billion.
The Chinese government says the impact of the corona virus epidemic on the economy is only short-term. The Chinese government in Beijing has also taken a number of support measures to help entrepreneurs return to business.
