China banks: Covid will eclipse property woe this new year
Foreign news bulletins have been featuring grim footage of Chinese hospitals packed with coronavirus patients. Nearly half the passengers on recent flights from China to Milan have tested positive. The Chinese economy is correspondingly sickly itself. Banks will bear a heavy financial burden as a result.
Data show that Beijing’s abrupt reversal of its restrictive zero-Covid policies is causing damage worse than widespread lockdowns. China’s factory activity shrank at its sharpest pace in nearly three years in December. The non-manufacturing index, measuring construction and services sector activity, declined to 41.6 from 46.7 the previous month. That was well below the 50-point mark separating contraction and growth.
Chinese health authorities estimate that 250mn people, or about 18 per cent of the population, contracted the virus in the first few weeks of December. The real percentage must be closer to figures reported by Italian health officials monitoring flights from Beijing.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Faqs of Insurances
