hotels closed the manager of a travel agency in shenyang the biggest city in chinas northeast said its monthly revenue usually 100000 yuan 14000 fell to zero he said the agency still is paying rent and wages of 20000 yuan 2800 a month we dont expect to see a recovery until may or june said the manager who would give only his surname xu we do hope the government can give us a tax exemption or reduction but we still have seen no subsidies property sales have fallen to almost zero over the past three weeks the industry employs millions of people and drives demand for appliances furniture and other consumer goods du the real estate salesman said he usually closes two sales a month and earns 70008000 yuan 10001100 he needs to make a 3000yuan 430 monthly loan payment whether he works or not i have no base salary and live on commission said du 27 without sales there will be no income chinese leaders already were struggling to shore up economic growth that slowed to 61 last year thanks to weak consumer demand and a tariff war with washington some economists citing industry surveys and other data say real growth already was much weaker than that the antidisease measures closed factories that supply the world with smartphones furniture shoes toys and household appliances that sent shockwaves through other developing countries that supply industrial components and iron ore copper and other commodities south korea and other economies that rely on china as an export market face potential job losses ecommerce companies are hiring extra workers to cope with a flood of demand as families stay home and buy groceries online but streets in beijing and other major cities are still empty and eerily quiet auto sales plunged 202 in january from a year earlier deepening a 2yearold decline in the industrys biggest global market sales fell 96 last year to 214 million well below their 2017 peak of 247 million that is squeezing global automakers that look to china to drive revenue as they spend billions of dollars to develop electric vehicles to meet government sales targets enterprises are under huge pressure said a statement by an industry group the china association of automobile manufacturers china rebounded relatively quickly from its 200203 outbreak of sars or severe acute respiratory syndrome but economic conditions now are less rosy sars struck when china was entering a historymaking boom powered by construction and exports growth peaked at a blistering 142 in 2007 by contrast the latest virus hit in the midst of a slowdown in smartphones apple huawei and other brands face a potential hit because china is both their no 1 market and global production base shipments might fall as much as 50 this quarter compared with the final three months of 2019 according to research firm canalys there is a high risk that component suppliers with factory workers still stranded in their hometowns by travel bans will not be able