Recently, the coronavirus gained additional attention as the death toll in China reached 1,106; 108 of these deaths have taken place within the last twenty four hours. That being said, a lot of the news coverage has been focused solely on the epidemic at hand and the disease itself. Outside of the obvious however, the coronavirus has impacted several other aspects of daily life. The Chinese economy, as well as the global economy, is being negatively impacted by this outbreak.
With one of the “world’s largest economies” being idle at the moment (The New York Times), the economy as a whole is at risk. When businesses and factories were initially shut down, it was assumed that things would have begun to reopen by now. But given their indolence, there is now worry that this may be an ongoing ordeal. It has therefore been predicted that production as a whole will begin to decline in the foreseeable future. That being said, trade has already been negatively affected; even before businesses recently began running out of parts and manufacturing necessities, countries were hesitant to continue interacting with the previously active supply chain that China has played a big part in because of the risk associated with the coronavirus.
Within China specifically, inflation has been pushed to an eight-year high (The New York Times). Although this is mainly to an increase in food prices, as it has been especially difficult to maintain a sufficient amount of products within the current market, nonfood related prices have also rose slightly. Hopefully, the coronavirus will begin to decline within the upcoming weeks. If not, the economy will continue to suffer.