China is easing restrictions but technically, the lockdown has been ongoing for over eight weeks now
While the rest of the world is only starting to enter into actual lockdown mode, China offers a fair glimpse of what to expect in terms of a recovery - that is if you really want to mitigate the number of cases and prevent a relapse.
Slow and steady appears to be their approach and after eight weeks of lockdown, things are still far from normal in China but at least there are some improvements.
Here's a bit of a look of the situation on the ground (credits to FT):
There won't be any immediate V-shaped recovery but at least we are likely going to observe a bounce in economic activity as Chinese authorities have been pushing for work resumption for major and essential companies.
It also won't be too long before we get a glimpse of economic conditions in March with the latest PMI figures set to be reported on 31 March, 1 April and 3 April.
That will offer a better observation of how things are progressing over the last few weeks.
However, there are a lot of things that won't be able to be quantified by the data and changes in social behaviour among consumers will be one of that.
There is no easy way to quantify how long and if even China will return back to its economic habits seen over the past few years but over time, we will find that out.
And that may set a precedent for what to expect in other countries around the world.
