COVID 19 has hit China’s economy hard, especially in the retail industry. In the Xinjiekou commercial area of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, some netizens took pictures which show that there were more than a dozen shops on the street with “For Sale” signs on them. Scholars believe that as the COVID 19 outbreak continues to worsen in the US and other Western countries, foreign countries will stop imports from China. Thus there will be more Chinese companies that will face bankruptcy. One resident in Wuhan said that many small businesses are trying to think of a backup plan. Once the lock-down in Wuhan has ended, many of the small businesses won’t be able to survive even with a loan from the government. This applies to retail business in Zhejiang, Fujian province and all the way to Helongjiang province in the northeast part of China. A retired Economics Professor at Sichuan University told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that there will be a wave of business shutdowns. As COVID 19 continues to spread around the world, more businesses will close. The impact is no different from a world war.
According to private surveys, nearly 30 percent of China’s population has no savings in the bank. Since the national economy has been shut down for the past two months, the local government’s fiscal revenue has also been greatly affected. Provinces and municipalities have recently announced their February fiscal revenue. Among them, Hubei is the worst. After deducting the income from land, the fiscal revenue fell 98.5 percent compared to the same period last year. Henan, the neighboring province of Hubei also fell 30 percent and Guangdong, a major export province, fell 27 percent. Most provinces and cities have fallen by more than 20 percent.
Source: Radio Free Asia, April 3, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jingmao/ql2-04032020055206.html