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American Businesses in China Express Gloomy Economic Outlook

Joyce Huang

   American businesses operating in China have turned bearish about the
   Chinese economy after more companies reported drops in revenues and
   market demand as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, a U.S.
   business lobby's survey showed on Wednesday.

   Some 76% of 119 company executives expressed a pessimistic outlook
   towards China's future economic growth, according to an [1]American
   Chamber of Commerce in China (AmChamChina) survey.

   The survey showed that the consumer, resource and industrial sectors
   are most pessimistic about the disease's impact, with 38% of them
   expecting a decrease of 50% or more in future growth.

   That sentiment was in line with recent economic forecasts.

   GDP cuts

   On Monday, a prominent investment bank in China --China International
   Capital Corp --cut its 2020 GDP forecast for China to 2.6%, sharply
   down from 6.1% in January, accordingtotheSouth Morning China Post.

   That compared withNomura Bank, which has slashed its 2020 growth
   forecasts for China to 1.3% from the previous 4.8%, while Bank of
   America Merrill Lynch has also cut its China forecast for this year to
   1.5%.

   TheAmChamsurvey, conducted before March 18, also showed that 50% of
   respondent companies were experiencing significant revenue declines and
   39% said demand for their products was down --respectively up from 28%
   and 22% in last month's survey.

   Already, 14% of respondents were seeing a daily loss of $70,705
   (500,000 yuan), up from 10% in Feb.

   Drops in revenue and demand

   If businesses fail to return to normal by the end of April, 57% of
   respondents, up from 48% in February, expect this year's revenues in
   China to decrease.

   Shouldbusinesses only return to normal after September, half of
   respondents expected a revenue drop of under 50% while another 13%
   expected a drop greater than 50%, according to thesurvey.

References

   1. https://www.amchamchina.org/

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