The Chinese economy has long had to deal with the negative consequences of the lockdowns due to the government’s zero-covid policy. According to De Jong, this has put severe downward pressure on the business.
It turned over
However, this policy was shelved in December, resulting in a sharp increase in business confidence. ‘The same goes for the service sector’, says De Jong, this index has increased from 41.6 to 54.4. “Second largest since 2007.” This shows how depressed Chinese entrepreneurs were, “but that sentiment has changed dramatically from one month to the next.”
According to De Jong, the figures show that the Chinese economy is ‘shooting the starting blocks’. And that matters to the world as a whole. ‘China has been the most important growth engine for the global economy for years. In the second half of last year, this economy collapsed sharply, but now it is moving forward with a jolt.’
IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has previously announced that it is considering declining inflation in 2023 and 2024. For China, the IMF expects growth of around 5%. “It’s good for the world too, but things shouldn’t go too fast in China either, because then commodity prices will skyrocket, and that will affect us.”