Coronavirus Outbreak Takes Toll on Chinese Economy as Firms Remain Closed

A Chinese employee works at a factory in Nantong in China's eastern Jiangsu province on Feb. 10, 2020. STR/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese regime recently announced that 80 percent of all central-government-run enterprises resumed operations on Feb. 18, following a mandated extended Lunar New Year break in order to prevent people from gathering and potentially spreading the coronavirus.

But benchmarks indicated that many more Chinese businesses did not return to work, despite the central authorities’ desire to prevent an economic slowdown due to the virus outbreak.

Rate of Returning to Work?

Chinese economists told business magazine Caixin that from Jan. 2 to Feb. 16, the country’s generated electrical energy was at roughly 60 percent of previous years’ levels.