Fighting Covid-19: Over 98% of China's major industrial firms resume work

China's manufacturing sector has steadily advanced production resumption, with 98.6 per cent of major industrial firms resuming work amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.

Around 89.9 per cent of employees in industrial companies with an annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2 million) have returned to their workplaces, Xinhua news agency quoted Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the MIIT, as saying at a briefing here.

In Hubei, where the pandemic originated in its capital Wuhan last December, the average work resumption rate of industrial firms have surpassed 95 per cent so far.

The production and operation of large pharmaceutical companies producing vitamin, antibiotic, antipyretic and analgesic ingredients have returned to normal, according to the vice minister.

Meanwhile, 76 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises nationwide have also resumed operations.

Some 92 leading enterprises in key industries have helped boost the work resumption of more than 400,000 their upstream and downstream enterprises, Xin said.

As of Monday, China reported 82,149 confirmed coronavirus cases with 3,308 fatalities.

Although the virus originated in China, the US now has the highest number of cases (142,502) globally, while Italy has recorded the largest death toll (10,779), according to the latest updates by the Washington-based Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

China unexpectedly cuts reverse repo rate by most in five years to support virus-hit economy

China's central bank unexpectedly cut the rate on reverse repurchase agreements by 20 basis points on Monday, the largest in nearly five years, as authorities ramped up steps to relieve pressure on an economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced on its website that it was lowering the 7-day reverse repo rate to 2.20% from 2.40%, but it did not give a reason for the move.
 

Ma Jun, a central bank adviser told state media that China still has ample room for monetary policy adjustment and the rate decision took into consideration the return of Chinese companies to work, the global virus situation and a deterioration in the external economic environment.

It was the third cut in the 7-day rate since November, and comes as the coronavirus infections in China - where the outbreak originated late last year - has slowed from a peak in February. The country has so far reported 3,304 deaths from 81,470 infections.

In a note to clients, Capital Economics said "a lot more easing will be needed, especially on the fiscal front, to help the economy return to its pre-virus trend."

Global policymakers have rolled out unprecedented stimulus measures in the past few weeks, cutting rates sharply and injecting trillions of dollars to backstop their economies as many countries have been put under tight lockdowns to contain the pandemic.

Yan Se, chief economist at Founder Securities in Beijing, said the rate cut was China's commitment to a pledge it made during the Group of 20 major economies meeting last week to combat the coronavirus and stabilise financial markets.