Commentary
Not one vehicle was sold in Shanghai in April, according to the Shanghai Automobile Sales Association on May 16. This is a direct result of lockdowns in which citizens no longer need their cars—and can’t afford them anyway.
According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, factory output and consumer spending tumbled last month, while the country’s jobless rate increased sharply to 6.1 percent. Consumer spending fell 11.1 percent compared to April last year. Automotive output by volume declined 43.5 percent. For Chinese citizens between the ages of 16 and 24, joblessness increased to 18.2 percent.
Stella Yifan Xie at The Wall Street Journal, who covered the latest data from China, wrote that it is “further evidence of the economic damage unleashed by the country’s strictest pandemic containment measures in more than two years.”…