China: Major business hub Guangzhou faces financial loss after implementation of zero COVID measure

Beijing, China: Covid-19 cases have been once again increasing in the People’s Republic of China. This sudden increase has now dented the economic prestige of the southern commercial hub of Guangzhou. The commercial hub has been facing a difficult road to recovery, according to the local news website The Straits Times.

Guangzhou has been facing an unpredictable and uncontrolled epidemic, which is resulting in financial uncertainty, suggesting that the recovery will take time. According to the website, the businesses have been crushed because of the implementation of “zero-COVID” measures; shops and workshops in the street were shuttered. The entrepreneurs have been putting their businesses up for sale; walls are plastered with “help wanted”, and the roads and alleys are mostly empty.

China faced a double blow of slumping demand as Americans and European shoppers have tightened their expenditures. The pandemic has resulted in the slowing of the global economy, and high inflation has dragged down and caused energy crises and geopolitical turmoil.

The Straits Times published a quote from the owner of a women’s clothing workshop, Tony Tang, in Guangzhou. He outlined that his sales had shrunk from 30 to 10, but there was no shortage of labour. He further informed that because of extra work, he was in need of a worker for which he went out on the streets with a handmade cardboard sign and hired one within a few minutes.

The food businesses also witnessed a reduction in early 2020 when the nation was under nationwide lockdown due to the first COVID-19 outbreak in the city of Wuhan. Along with this, some eateries remained closed for more than a month as customers stayed home to avoid infection.

Besides this, manufacturing also declined in the month of November as many regions and cities of the country were closed due to lockdowns. The Strait Times informed that an electric car manufacturer Nio shared cited that the COVID-19 outbreak has reduced its car deliveries. Tesla has also stopped its manufacturing as COVID-19 is severely damaging businesses. The news website mentioned that the damage imposed by the zero-COVID measure is hard to repair.