As anger over China's strict zero COVID-19 policy intensifies, residents in some major cities took to the streets at the weekend, clashing with police over restrictions that have taken a heavy toll on the economy and people's freedoms.Chinese stocks slumped on Monday as recent monetary easing measures failed to offset investor worries about the protests in the world's second-largest economy, while the yuan weakened versus the dollar.
"Things are very fluid. Protests could also be the catalyst that leads to a positive outcome in leading the government to set a clearer game plan on how the country is going to learn to live with COVID, setting a more transparent timetable, and accelerating China's move to living with COVID.""The scale of the protests will necessarily elicit a response from Beijing.
"Overall, the China Q4 growth outlook should remain grim given the COVID resurgence and the related mobility tightening. What's more, the outbreak of the social unrest reflected the prevailing feeling of anti-pandemic fatigue after a long period of lockdowns and all of these will likely suppress consumption.