China’s economy was the first to be shut down by the spread of the coronavirus, but as it proliferates in Europe and America, countries around the world are instituting drastic measures to try to contain it.
Businesses and offices have been closed and citizens confined to their homes. Normal economic activity has been disrupted on an unprecedented scale in peacetime as the patterns of every day life are upended.
Governments are intervening to try to stave off the collapse of companies and livelihoods. Many economists believe the world has already entered a recession.
The economic fallout from the pandemic looks to be one of the biggest shocks in generations. The Financial Times will be tracking the fallout here.
The Financial Times China Economic Activity Index
China’s slowdown due to the coronavirus outbreak has been pronounced and consequential for the global economy. In order to track these changes, the FT has constructed its own measure of the slowdown and nascent recovery in the Chinese economy.
Official data lags behind activity since it is mostly monthly, and China’s data are sometimes viewed as open to political manipulation.
Using Wind’s financial database, we have compiled a weighted index of six daily, industry-based data series.
The measures of the domestic economy include real estate floor space sales, traffic congestion within cities and coal consumption in large power plants. Trade activity is represented by container freight.
Two other indices, which have been given a lesser weighting, provide social and environmental context: box office numbers from Chinese cinemas — a good proxy on consumer activity — and air pollution in the 10 largest cities.
Real-time data can provide a snapshot of how the shutdowns will affect economies before official data can capture it. Here we will be tracking some key indicators of daily activity.
