China's Battle Against Fresh COVID Outbreak Clouds Economic Recovery

• From canceled hotel bookings ahead of the Lunar New Year to steel piled up at mills because of transport curbs in Hebei province, China's battle against a new wave of COVID-19 infections clouds what has been a dramatic economic recovery.
• New cases in China are at 10-month highs, prompting the lockdown of 28 million people in two provinces, disrupting logistics and industrial activity, with millions expected to scrap holiday travel plans in a blow to China's efforts to get consumption back on track.
• Thanks partly to surging global demand for Chinese-made electronics and gear to protect from coronavirus, China looks set to be the only major economy to expand in 2020, with growth expected at 2.1%.
• Given the limited geographic spread of the outbreaks and improved testing and containment, economists do not expect anything approaching a repeat of what happened in the first quarter of last year when the emergence of the coronavirus resulted in the world's second-largest economy contracting by 6.8%.

(Source: Reuters)