Global investors fly blind into China’s messy post-COVID transition

Global investors, already caught off guard by China’s virus-policy U-turn, now find themselves flying blind into a chaotic post-pandemic transition, lacking proper data to track rising infections and potential threats to the economy in the months ahead.

Authorities in China, where official data often confounds investors or is questioned for its reliability, have halted mass testing for COVID-19 and narrowed their reporting of infections, making information even harder to come by.

Investors have been left scouring online search data or other alternatives and are tweaking their tracking models, struggling for a clear view of surging COVID infections and a potential healthcare crisis as the world’s second-largest economy reopens.

While confidence remains unshaken that China will emerge with stronger growth in the latter part of next year, the near-term surge in cases poses new challenges to an economy that investors have long found difficult to read.

“It’s chaos now,” said Joanna Shen, emerging markets and Asia Pacific equities investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

This report’s information was first seen on Zawya.com; to read more, click this link.