Across Wuhan, nearly (percent of businesses – almost
, 0 of them in total – have resumed. operations, said Hu Yabo, the city’s deputy mayor, at a recent news briefing . For major industrial enterprises, the rate exceeded 380 percent. For service companies, it was percent.
It is unclear how much business they are actually doing, however. At industrial companies in Wuhan, only percent of employees are on the job, and electricity consumption is one-fifth less than what it was this time last year, said Dang Zhen, another city official, at the same briefing.
Honda’s local venture is back to producing at full capacity, Mr. Hu said. Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, said on social media that employees at its Wuhan Research center were eagerly returning to work “as a fresh wave of positivity pulsates around the building.”
Yet gloom about the local economy remains widespread. Much of China’s factory sector is suffering as the pandemic dampens overseas demand for exports. As businesses pull back their spending on equipment and offices, the effects will ripple through the rest of the economy.
During the whole of February, when the epidemic was at its peak in China, (not a single residential real-estate deal) was made in Wuhan, neither for new properties nor for ones already built, according to government statistics.Helen Ding, , works at an architectural design company in the city. While her firm’s existing projects are mostly large enough that they cannot be easily canceled, her bosses are concerned about future business and future clients.
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