COVID-devastated Shanghai could clean up cases in the community in as soon as 10 days: CDC chief epidemiologist (GT)
2022-04-08
Why is Shanghai seeing so many asymptomatic Covid-19 infections? (SCMP)
2022-04-07
China sends nearly 40,000 medics to Shanghai in tough fight against Omicron (Xinhua)
2022-04-06
Shanghai Reverses Covid Separation Policy to Let Families Stay With Their Infected Kids for Treatment (Caixin)
2022-04-06
Shanghai's largest makeshift hospital has begun allowing parents to accompany their Covid-positive children, after the financial hub shifted its policy to allow some families with infected children to stay together in quarantine facilities. The move comes after local health authorities came under fire online for separating children who tested positive for Covid-19 from their parents, as the locked-down city wrestles with its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic, in which more cases have been recorded than in Wuhan's early 2020 outbreak. The "fangcang" hospital — a kind of makeshift facility notably used at the start of the pandemic in Wuhan — located at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, has admitted 177 people, including 89 Covid-positive children, to a family-friendly section as of Tuesday morning, just hours after the section began operating, local media reported. The section was designated to provide nearly 1,000 beds for families with infected children, said a director at Shanghai Children's Medical Center working in the section, according to local media reports. The director said the parents of over 80% of the currently admitted children have also tested positive, thus they can be admitted together, according to the reports. For those who test negative but have a strong desire not to be separated from their sick children, arrangements will be made to allow them to stay together on the premise that the parents are fully aware of the risks of infection, the director added. The decision was made out of humanitarian considerations, the director was quoted by local media as saying on Tuesday. Previously, some said the policy of separating families was inhumane, especially referring to some cases in which both parents and their children tested positive for the virus — a circumstance in which parents can be allowed to accompany their kids under related Chinese regulations. Wu Qianyu, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a Wednesday press conference that authorities have adopted a friendly mode for families with young Covid patients, and have allowed guardians to accompany infected children as long as they apply and sign a letter indicating they fully understand the potential health risks. "Children are the softest group, and their infections touch everyone's heart, and we, as parents, feel the same way," Wu said. The admission and treatment of infected children should not only comply with Covid rules, but also consider the actual needs of their special care, she noted. Also on Wednesday, the city of 25 million decided to kick off its third round of citywide mass testing, after it reported 17,077 local infections on Tuesday, the fifth straight day of a daily record, which took the overall nationwide daily tally to over 20,000, according to health authorities. Since March 1, the total number of local cases recorded in Shanghai has exceeded 90,000. The figure is higher than the roughly 80,000 cases confirmed across China at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic from January to late February 2020. The surging cases prompted Vice Premier Sun Chunlan to call for all-out efforts to stem the outbreak, urging local authorities to do everything possible to build more quarantine facilities. Shanghai has put into use some 48,000 new quarantine beds, and another 30,000 will soon be ready for residents, Gu Honghui, the city government's deputy secretary-general, said at a Tuesday press conference.
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China's forex reserves fall by US$26 billion amid ongoing capital outflows following Russian invasion of Ukraine (SCMP)
2022-04-07
Chinese premier stresses maneuvering monetary policy tools to bolster real economy (Xinhua)
2022-04-07
China's services sector activity contracted at steepest pace in 2 years in March (SCMP)
2022-04-06
Chinese securities regulator's move on data security rules boosts shares (GT)
2022-04-05
European companies show confidence in Chinese market with continued investment (Xinhua)
2022-04-05
China's lockdowns drive up freight costs as zero-Covid rules bite trucking operations (SCMP)
2022-04-05
China Turns to Credit Easing to Kick-Start Sluggish Economy (Caixin)
2022-04-05
As Beijing seeks to kick-start China's sluggish economy with a jolt of fresh liquidity, credit easing is set to be its tool of choice. "We will step up implementation of the prudent monetary policy," said Premier Li Keqiang in his 2022 government work report delivered to China's top legislature on March 5. "We will use monetary policy tools to adjust both the monetary aggregate and the monetary structure, so as to provide more robust support for the real economy." The premier's promises came as credit demand has been on the decline while the economy's rapid recovery from Covid-19 has begun to stutter. The expansion of outstanding total social financing (TSF), a broad measure of credit and liquidity in the economy, decelerated for most of last year. In the fourth quarter, a gauge of overall loan demand fell for the third straight quarter on both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter bases, according to a banker survey report released by the People's Bank of China (PBOC). Economists expect that the central bank will further cut interest rates and banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) this year, although some are concerned that the Russia-Ukraine war could lead to greater inflationary pressure, creating constraints for monetary policy. The government has in recent months taken a series of steps to boost the availability of credit, yet credit demand has remained weak. In December, the PBOC cut financial institutions' RRR, a measure for the amount of cash lenders need to keep in reserve, injecting about 1.2 trillion yuan ($188 billion) into the financial system. On Jan. 17, the PBOC lowered the interest rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF), the first cut since April 2020. The next day, PBOC Deputy Governor Liu Guoqiang vowed that the central bank will "open the monetary policy toolbox wider, maintain stability in the money supply and avoid a collapse in credit." Despite these measures, credit growth weakened in February following a strong start in January. In February, new yuan-denominated loans came in at 1.23 trillion yuan, down from a record high of nearly 4 trillion yuan the month before and 1.36 trillion yuan in February 2021, according to PBOC data. Also that month, new TSF fell to 1.19 trillion yuan, down from a record high of 6.17 trillion yuan in January and 1.72 trillion yuan a year earlier. The February figures were both below market expectations. Even taking into account the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday ended on Feb. 6, the figures showed that credit demand in the real economy was weak, analysts said. The credit expansion was mainly driven by policy rather than market demand, some said. The weak credit demand suggests that there is still downward pressure on the economy, analysts said. As a result, there are likely to be interest rate cuts in the near term, they predicted. However, China's monetary policy space could become constrained by Russia's war on Ukraine, according to Ren Zeping, a former chief economist of China Evergrande Group. Moscow's invasion of its neighbor has pushed up global commodity prices and raised the risk of imported inflation in China. Since the war began on Feb. 24, China's central bank has been more cautious about interest rate or RRR reductions. On March 15, the PBOC unexpectedly kept the interest rate on its one-year MLF unchanged, bucking predictions of a cut. Still, some economists argued that the risk of global inflation will have a limited impact on China's monetary policy. Xu Gao, chief economist at BOCI Securities Ltd., said that domestic inflationary pressure isn't heavy, as the government has eased restrictions on energy production which had pushed up inflation last year. Also, Xu expects that the rising costs of manufacturers and mining companies can't be smoothly passed on to consumers, meaning inflationary pressure from this factor will be limited. Economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. said in a March 15 note that it is highly likely that the PBOC will cut interest rates on the one-year MLF and seven-day reverse repurchase agreements in April, with an estimated reduction of around 10 basis points. They also expected the one-year and five-year-plus national loan prime rates could both be cut by 10 basis points in April. Over the next few months, the PBOC will likely cut the RRR by 50 basis points, they said. Zhong Zhengsheng, chief economist at Ping An Securities Co. Ltd., said that the initial effects of credit easing policies and the spillover effect from the U.S. tightening its monetary policy will make the PBOC more careful about the timing of across-the-board interest rate or RRR cuts. The central bank may prefer to use structural monetary tools to offer credit support to certain sectors, said Zhong. The government work report said that more funds will be guided into key fields as well as weak links of the economy. The report also stressed that financial institutions should "prevent industry-wide lending restrictions, forced early repayment of loans, and arbitrary termination of loan agreements." The remarks came as many of China's financial institutions are reluctant to lend money to real estate companies, following the debt crisis that struck the sector amid government efforts to cool down the overheated housing market last year. Though financial regulators have taken steps to correct lenders' overreactions to government policies, financing activities in the real estate sector still remain weak. In February, 100 major Chinese real estate firms monitored by consultancy China Real Estate Information Corp. raised a combined 39.8 billion yuan, 58.8% less than a year earlier and down 58.9% from January, according to a report released by the firm. PBOC data showed that medium- and long-term household loans, including mortgage loans, fell 45.9 billion yuan in February from the previous month, the first drop in more than a decade. Real estate has long been a pillar of economic growth in China, with some concerned that the crisis will weigh on economic growth. Xu, the BOCI economist, suggested the government enhance credit support for developers and homebuyers this year if it wants to ease credit conditions in the economy. However, it's likely that the government doesn't want to derail its long-term effort to slash leverage in the real estate industry. "Although local governments continue to ease some local property curbs, the pace appears moderate, and we continue to believe Beijing will stick to most of its major property curbs," Nomura economists said in a note Friday. There are hopes in some specific areas though. For instance, authorities have vowed to offer support to property firms constructing low-rent housing, and those who need credit to acquire their struggling peers.
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