Despite these heavy restrictions, the virus has now been detected in 20 provinces. Parts of Beijing were forced into lockdown even as a key Communist Party meeting in the capital consolidated the authority of Xi Jinping.
China caused chaos in global supply chains in August by partially closing a major port for a fortnight after a single worker tested positive for the Delta variant, and it is feared similar measures will be taken again in coming months.
Former Bank of England chief Mark Carney has urged China to reconsider its approach to COVID after a handful of cases triggered the shutdown of entire cities and pushed the world’s second biggest economy towards recession.Credit:Bloomberg
The country’s leadership is desperate to get a grip on the outbreak ahead of February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing through the zero-COVID approach, but Mr Carney stressed the “very disruptive” impact of the extreme measures.
He said: “What we’ve seen in the UK and other countries is a greater ability to live with COVID.
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“China and others will have to evolve or pivot, depending on how you put it, towards managing COVID, helped by vaccinations, helped by boosters, potentially helped by improvements in therapeutics, which we’re starting to see, in order to manage it.”
The threat of more drawn out disruption is likely to increase the pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest raises. The Bank forecasts inflation will peak at 5 per cent next year, the highest since 2011.
Craig Botham, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “If you come down so hard on an outbreak, then it keeps hitting activity, and it’s very hard for businesses to predict and adapt to that.”
Telegraph, London
