Xie Xiaobo, deputy director of the Development and Reform Commission of China’s Zhejiang Province, has stated that Zhejiang Province will strive to resume operation of 75 percent of its industrial capacity by the end of February this year. Due to the ongoing coronavirus, the economic development of Zhejiang Province has been negatively affected, which will result in a significant year-on-year decline in its GDP growth in the first quarter of the year.
In the short term, manufacturing industry and the service industry will be hit hard as postponement of enterprises’ production and operations will exert a negative impact on the sectors in question. Meanwhile, downstream users’ consumption will shrink significantly, construction activities will slow down, while the launch of newly-built projects will be delayed.
However, Mr. Xie forecast that a recovery in the rest of the year after the first quarter would compensate for the first quarter slowdown.