The corona virus also has no effects on the car market. The much-feared illness caused the biggest monthly sales decline ever recorded in China in February.
The number of new cars sold in China last month was a whopping 79 percent lower than in February last year, Reuters reports. It will not surprise anyone that the coronavirus is identified as the main cause, but the disease comes on top of a downward trend that had already started. For example, February goes into the books as the 20th month in a row in which the sales figures are lower.
The Chinese car builders association CAAM foresees a 10 percent drop for the first half of 2020. If the virus is contained in April, the damage may still be limited to 5 percent.
At the time of writing, more than 80,000 people in China are infected with the corona virus. Nearly 63,000 of those have been cured, but some 3,200 patients have not survived.