New economic data released Monday shows China’s economic activity in all areas plunged in the first two months of 2020 as the novel coronavirus outbreak first erupted and took hold in the world’s second-largest economy.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the country’s industrial output fell by a whopping 13.5 percent in January and February compared to the same period a year earlier. Fixed-asset investment, which measures spending on such items as infrastructure, property, and equipment, collapsed by 24.5 percent.
Meanwhile, retail sales fell by 20.5 percent, while unemployment rose to a record 6.2 percent in February.
The massive contraction in the Chinese economy coincided with a set of restrictive measures imposed by Beijing at the start of the Lunar New Year,, such as travel bans and quarantines, to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which was first detected in December in Hubei province. Many factories remained closed as the restrictive measures extended far beyond the traditional holiday period.
Activity has slowly returned to normal as the number of new infections appears to have slowed, but analysts say it will probably be months before the Chinese economy recovers, as the COVID-19 virus has evolved into a pandemic that has virtually stopped all economic activity in the United States and Europe.
