The south eastern part of China had once again been hit by a strong quake on April 20, 2012, but the economy of the country has not yet been majorly affected. China’s Sichuan province was hit by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which had struck Ya’an city.
The quake had killed at least 193 people and injured more than 12,200. Wang Xiaoguang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Governance said, “From what we have learnt from the region’s 2008 quake, economic impacts will be limited. Losses in local areas should not be blown up to a disaster for the whole economy”. By Sunday, the earthquake had affected around 2 million local residents and destroyed more than 26,400 houses. It had also damaged a number of roads and reservoirs.
Investors seemed a bit worried about the country after reports of weak factory production data in China. A few more days are needed to calculate the actual losses, but the figure is expected to be significantly low. Media reports claimed that direct economic losses of about 10 billion yuan could occur due to this quake, which is much lower than the 845 billion yuan which was a result of the Wenchuan quake.
It appears as though the Chinese economy is strong enough to withstand forces of nature as well.
