- Title: China says impact from coronavirus outbreak to decrease in Q2
- Date: 16th March 2020
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (MARCH 16, 2020) (REUTERS) CHINESE OFFICIALS ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NATIONAL STATISTIC BUREAU SPOKESMAN, MAO SHENGYONG, SAYING: "As the results of methods towards containing the epidemic has gradually shown domestically, what's more important, is that people are getting back to work and factories are getting back in production, and the general order of economic production and activity continues to recover. The effects of the epidemic will clearly decrease in the second quarter. Especially for some economic activities that were previously suppressed, they will gradually be allowed to resume. So, there will be an obvious increase in the second quarter." MEDIA SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NATIONAL STATISTIC BUREAU SPOKESMAN, MAO SHENGYONG, SAYING: "Companies are gradually recovering their general order of production, the situation for factories going back into business and hiring is improving, and their labour demands will continue to increase. Especially when it comes to economic recovery, if things are more stable in the latter half of the year, employment pressure will gradually mitigate. We believe that the unemployment rate will overall decrease in the latter half of the year." MEDIA SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NATIONAL STATISTIC BUREAU SPOKESMAN, MAO SHENGYONG, SAYING: "As we can see from this year, even though we are facing some (economic) impact of the epidemic, we will issue some policies at a greater scope so that we can do our best to minimise the impact of the epidemic as much as possible. We must work hard in order to achieve all of our goals for this year, especially to win the fight of poverty alleviation, and we will do our best to achieve our annual development goals." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 30th March 2020 05:39
- Keywords: China economy China first two quarters coronavirus economic data and performance
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA
- City: BEIJING, CHINA
- Country: China
- Topics: Budget/Taxation/Revenue,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001C5AUQMF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: China expects the impact from the coronavirus outbreak on the economy to decrease in the second quarter, the statistics bureau said on Monday (March 16).
Authorities are still confident in achieving the full-year economic growth targets, said bureau spokesman Mao Shengyong, adding that the economy is expected to show significant improvement in March.
China's nationwide survey-based jobless rate rose to 6.2% in February, compared with 5.2% in December, the latest official data showed.
China's economy has suffered a heavy blow as the epidemic has paralysed activity, with industrial output contracting at the fastest pace in 30 years and fixed-asset investment falling for the first time on record.
(Production: Wang Shubing, Fang Nanlin) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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