Shanghai COVID Lockdown to Cost China’s Economy $29 Billion in 2 Weeks, Analysts Say

Trucks are delayed, deliveries are slowed, and costs will rise, according to logistics providers 

A transit officer, wearing a protective gear, controls access to a tunnel in the direction of Pudong district in lockdown as a measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus, in Shanghai on March 28, 2022. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

A full-scale lockdown on China’s financial hub of Shanghai is likely to cost the economy 190 billion yuan ($29.8 billion) in two weeks, or 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to a minimum estimate by a Hong Kong economist.

Almost 7 percent of the loss would be from the spillover effects to other cities, said Zheng Michael Song, an economics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.