Rising concern about consumer and business confidence in China - as strict curbs aimed at stamping out Covid-19 undercut a return to prosperity - have hampered growth

The government will also prioritise the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and stabilise employment and prices, state media reported

The country has achieved a 89.7% vaccination rate and given about 56% of its population a booster dose, but only 61% of those aged above 80 getting primary jabs.

Authorities said they had received reports that some employers had refused to employ workers who caught the virus during the city’s two-month lockdown

ADB cited China’s Covid-19 lockdowns as well as monetary tightening and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as factors dragging down Asian gross domestic product growth

  Authorities in China’s southern technology hub of Shenzhen have ordered strict implementation of testing and temperature checks and locked...

BCA Research expects China's recovery to be U-shaped this year, failing to repeat the V-shaped resurgence that followed lockdowns in 2020 during the early part of the pandemic.

Commercial hub Shanghai said it plans to hold mass testing in many of its 16 districts and in some smaller areas where new infections were reported recently

The Reuters Tankan showed sentiment among Japanese manufacturers and the services sector improving only modestly over the next three months

The prolonged crisis in the property sector and China's stringent Covid curbs are adding to the pressure that local governments face

The 30-plus casinos in the city will be closed for a week, but analysts say it's likely the suspension could be extended by weeks, with a gaming recovery unlikely till the end of the third quarter.

The highly-transmissible BA.5 is driving outbreaks in many countries outside China and has shown a greater ability to escape vaccine-triggered antibody reactions than other Omicron subvariants