01-21-2022, 04:13 PM
China’s factories face ‘rather large’ downward pressure in the first quarter, official says
- The industrial economy still hasn’t seen a firm recovery, due to the global pandemic, weakening trade growth, lack of consumer demand and other factors, spokesperson Luo Junjie told reporters.
- “On top of that, recently the coronavirus has spread to many places,” Luo said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation. “In the first quarter of the year, the industrial economy still faces rather large downward pressure.
- Luo added that although the shortage in semiconductors has eased, supply will remain tight for a while.
![[Image: 107003649-1642662050332-gettyimages-1365...=740&h=416]](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107003649-1642662050332-gettyimages-1365099020-vcg111365295443.jpeg?v=1642662098&w=740&h=416)
BEIJING — China’s factory production faces “rather large” downward pressure for the first quarter, an official with the national Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said Thursday.
The industrial economy still hasn’t seen a firm recovery, due to the global pandemic, weakening trade growth, lack of consumer demand and other factors, spokesperson Luo Junjie told reporters.
“On top of that, recently the coronavirus has spread to many places,” Luo said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation. “In the first quarter of the year, the industrial economy still faces rather large downward pressure.”
Since late December and the entrance of the highly transmissible omicron variant into the country, local Chinese authorities have announced more lockdowns and travel restrictions to prevent Covid outbreaks from spreading.
These recent lockdowns would only have a short-term and limited impact on supply chains, Tian Yulong, chief engineer and another spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told reporters at the same press event Thursday.
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