Deutsche Bank sees China’s ‘V-shaped recovery’ moderating in the second half of 2020

CNBC reports that China’s economic recovery could cool in the second half of 2020 after its strong bounce from lows earlier in the year, according to Deutsche Bank’s chief economist and head of research for Asia Pacific, Michael Spencer.

“China is clearly advancing rapidly out of the Covid epidemic,” Spencer told CNB. “All of the data since the middle of February have pointed to as near enough to a V-shaped recovery as we’re going to get anywhere.”

The outlook ahead, however, appears to be less clear — according to Spencer — who said the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is “first and foremost” on consumption activity as people are either locked in or choosing not to go out.

“When you look at the Chinese data — excluding cinemas which are still closed and restaurants where people still have an aversion to going into large restaurants — retail sales of goods have almost completely recovered, as of May, to the sort of seasonally adjusted pre-Covid level,” Spencer said. 

As a result of the recovery in Chinese domestic demand, he said: “The sequential growth rate is just going to get slower as there’s less of a gap to normal activity to close.”

Meanwhile, sales of medical equipment have been a “very important contributor to export growth” over the last few months, though the economist said that will likely “taper off.”