Pedestrians wearing protective masks stand in front of a department store on the Nanjing East Road ahead of the Lunar New Year in Shanghai, China, on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. A deadly coronavirus, which first appeared last month in the city of Wuhan in central China, has spread from the mainland to locations from Hong Kong to the U.S., coloring what is usually a period of celebration and reunion for Chinese people across the world with tension and anxiety. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
SYDNEY: Chinese consumption, a key growth driver in an economy transitioning from investment, is set to take a blow from the coronavirus outbreak that hit just as millions of people set out on vacation, S&P Global Ratings said.
If spending on things including discretionary transport and entertainment dropped by 10%, overall GDP growth would fall by about 1.2 percentage points, according to "back of the envelope” estimates from Shaun Roache, Asia-Pacific chief economist.
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