关键词: COVID-19, 中国经济, 政策讨论, 区域化应对, 结构化工具, 上市企业

Abstract:

The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has collapsed the world’s economy. A discussion of the reaction to structural and regional policies is imperative for the Chinese government because the implementation of policies is limited. As the state of the stock market indicates the direction of the economy, the financial reports of some enterprises from China’s Stock market for the first quarter of 2020 were collected and analyzed. This was the period in which the productivity of the enterprises were severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic with respect to industry, actors’ scale, and region. The results show: 1) Except agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, all other industries had lesser profit and limited operating cash flow, and their balance sheets had deteriorated. The services industry faced more challenges than the others. The behavioral decisions made by individuals, the governmental policies for lock-down, and the nature of industries were responsible for these detrimental changes; 2) The companies with small and medium market value were affected more than big enterprises. In Q1, big companies made more profits, optimized their operating cash flows, and stabilized their balance sheets. This is mainly because of the difference of operating ability among actors and the Matthew effect; 3） Owing to the differences in the population structure and land price in different regions, the manufacture, service, and building and estate industries faced greater challenges in the developed provinces than in the less developed regions. The pandemic adversely affected the finance industry in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong; however, it showed improvement in Jiangsu. It has been observed that the financial structure in regions, and operating ability of companies were the main reasons for the negative impact on the finance industry. The medical industry was affected but progressed in areas with better industrial basement. This was because the demand for certain medicines and devices peaked during the period and the areas with better industrial base played more important role in fighting the virus. In this context, the authors discussed the two approaches: “Adopting a more proactive fiscal policy and deeply optimizing financial environment of enterprises,” and “Choosing policies implements regionally.” It can be argued that unilateral expansion of demand will result in a larger gap between demand and supply. This is disadvantageous because the global production system mainly depends on the manufacturing industry in China. The government should not only focus on resumption, but also start investment of new or traditional infrastructures. Moreover, owing to the uncertainty of the market, the factors that improve the balance sheet are few. Therefore, helping more entities by financial market and making the social capital more active have become the priorities for the government. In order to improve the manufacturing and service industry, undeveloped regions are encouraged to expand job opportunities, and the residents in developed regions are encouraged to consume more services and decrease the operating costs of the service industry. This can positively contribute to restoring the economy. Some measures adopted to benefit financial and building and estate industries are encouraging local commercial banks in medium-sized and small cities to provide loans to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), boost infrastructure construction in developed regions, and loosen control of estate development. The policy makers of the medical industry were advised to focus on long-term development. Optimizing the financial environments for SMEs in medical industry and developing a multi-core, nation-wide distribution of industry are necessary for China.

Key words: COVID-19, China economic, policies' discussion, regional response, structural tools, listed companies