The coronavirus outbreak is hitting China’s exports and disrupting global supply chains. The world’s second-largest economy has been at a near standstill for two weeks after the government extended the lunar new year holiday to contain the disease, which has killed more than 1,000 people and infected 40,000 worldwide.
Though employees are trickling back to work, many companies have delayed restarting production in China and elsewhere. Consumers are avoiding shops and restaurants, and transports links remain disrupted.
“The spread of the virus — or more accurately, the effort to contain it — poses the biggest near-term threat to global growth,” says Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics.