China's sticking to its border policies will keep the heat up on tourism-dependent economies, says Fitch

The likelihood that China will stick to its stance on its “zero-Covid” policy will keep the pressure up on tourism-dependent economies such as Thailand, for which China was a key source market pre-pandemic, said Fitch Ratings in a note on Tuesday (Jan 4). “While there are some deleterious economic outcomes because of the onerous restrictions, these are largely manageable in Beijing’s eyes,” said Asst Prof Dylan Loh from the Public Policy and Global Affairs programme at NTU. “As long as Beijing thinks that it can deal with whatever fallout or criticism of such an approach, they are not likely to change tack. The lockdown of Xi’an in that regard will be an important test of their zero-Covid resolve. If they can successfully steer Covid cases down and manage or prevent residents’ frustrations with food supplies and movements restrictions from spilling over, they will probably persist with this.”

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