China’s zero-Covid labyrinth

China’s zero-Covid policy will lead to an “extended period of sub-par growth” as constant lockdowns constrict its economy.

Chinese transit officer in protective gear
Shanghai is still largely shut down
(Image credit: © HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai, China’s biggest city, “has spent most of the past two months in a state of suspended animation”, says Nathaniel Taplin in The Wall Street Journal. Yet despite growing economic damage from a prolonged lockdown, policymakers have brought in only modest stimulus measures, perhaps because they think that “revving the monetary engine with much of the economy in partial lockdown might… simply blow asset bubbles”.

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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.