China’s economy to shrink for the first time since 1976

China may now be on course for its first quarterly contraction since 1976, with Goldman Sachs predicting a 9% plunge in first-quarter economic activity.

Most factories are still operating at two-thirds of their capacity © Getty

Is China a safe-haven? Stocks in the country where the coronavirus originated have dodged the worst of the falls on Western indexes. The Shanghai Composite index is down by less than 10% since the start of the year, compared with 29%-33% losses in the US and Europe.

China is gradually getting back to work but with tough restrictions, say Ryan McMorrow and Qianer Liu in the Financial Times. Employees often have their temperatures taken multiple times per day and most companies are only allowing about half of their workers back into the office. Compulsory face mask wearing remains common.“Halting the world’s second-largest economy has proved easier than restarting it,” writes Keither Bradsher in The New York Times.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.