Shanghai's economy slows down as COVID-19 restrictions continue
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Loading... - Yu Yan Wong
- 25 Apr 2022
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Shanghai's economic growth showed signs of slowing down in the first three months of 2022 as the financial hub was hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of China's eastern city grew 3.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, said the local statistics bureau on Saturday, lagging behind the national figure of 4.8 percent during the same period.
"From January to February, the city's economy ran stable. However, affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in March, the first quarter's economic operations show a trend from stability to slowdown," said Shanghai's statistics bureau in a statement.
Despite some supermarkets and factories having resumed operations, many communities in the city are still under strict lockdown.
Shanghai started reporting cases in this round of its COVID-19 outbreak in early March and has gradually imposed strict measures to contain the virus. From late March, most of the city's 25 million residents have experienced lockdowns and only some of the communities have been loosened.
It is the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the country as the Omicron variant spreads faster than the earlier variants of the virus.
Shanghai's industrial output increased 11.9 percent year on year in the first two months but dropped 10.9 percent in March, per the official data.
Retail sales saw the same up and down, rising 3.7 percent year on year from January to February and declining 18.9 percent in March alone.
The outbreak has also hurt employment. The statistics bureau said in Shanghai 192,600 new jobs were created in the first quarter, which is 26,200 lower than the same period last year.
However, as an important base of China's auto industry, Shanghai saw its production value of new energy vehicles increase by 98.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the bureau's data.
The jump was against the backdrop of many carmakers raising prices of their models as a result of a shortage in raw materials during the period. Read More...
