China Extends New Year Holidays Until 9th February In Some Provinces

China has confirmed that the Lunar New Year holidays are being extended across the country until Sunday 2^nd February.

In addition, some provinces have confirmed further extensions to the holidays with only ‘essential’ services open trying to contain the coronavirus as follows:

• Anhui closed until 9^th February.
• Chongqing closed until 9^th February.
• Guangdong closed until 9^th February but with some schools etc closed until 17^th -24^th February.
• Hubei closed until 13^th February (includes the main affected city of Wuhan)
• Jiangsu and Yunnan closed until 9^th February.
• Jiangxi and Shandong closed until 9^th February.
• Shanghai closed until 9^th February.
• Zhejiang Province closed until 9^th February.

Comment

The Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province remains in lockdown until 14^th February and of interest to the world of finance, the Chinese Stock Exchange is in Shanghai meaning it may not reopen until 10^th February.  Global companies that have operations in China are mostly closed and when Chinese markets do reopen, we expect falls or even a significant correction of up to 10%.  This is being reflected around the globe as markets continue to tumble.