China needs to lift veil of secrecy on zero-Covid policy

WHEN China failed to release its latest trade data last Friday (Oct 14) and third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures as scheduled on Tuesday, the rumour mill immediately went into overdrive - from a poor report card to a political decision to delay these until after the end of this week’s Party Congress, the once-in-five-years event held to laud the government’s achievements and legitimise the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.

But days into the Congress, the bulls were clearly disappointed at the lack of market support from the national team. The Shanghai Composite Index performance was lacklustre and has been heading downwards since the start of the congress on Oct 16. Historically, the stock market would rally in the three months preceding the congress. 

Economists at Goldman Sachs expect China’s real GDP growth in Q3 to be 3.5 per cent on year, higher than the 0.4 per cent growth seen in the second quarter, which was dampened by protracted lockdowns in major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.