The World Bank on Tuesday sharply lowered its forecasts for China for this year and 2023 due to “significant risks”, mainly related to Covid-19 and the housing crisis, AFP reported.

In its previous June forecasts, the institution was already worried about the growth of the second world economy, which was then under the yoke of the “Covid zero” policy.

The country suddenly returned in early December and lifted most of the restrictions that had been in place for nearly three years after the first cases of Covid appeared in Wuhan (centre) in late 2019.

Experts now fear that China is unprepared for the wave of infections associated with this reopening, with millions of elderly and vulnerable people unvaccinated.

In this context, the world’s second largest economy should register GDP growth of only 2.7% this year and 4.3% next year, according to the World Bank.

That’s a sharp drop from the agency’s previous forecast, which in June called for China’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 4.3% in 2022 and 5.2% in 2023.

Last year, growth reached 8.1% thanks to a recovery from 2020, when activity was halted at the very beginning of the epidemic with the isolation of the city of Wuhan.

“China’s growth prospects are subject to significant risks,” the World Bank said, citing the “uncertain trajectory of the pandemic.”

The capital Beijing and its 22 million inhabitants have been particularly affected by an unprecedented wave of Covid infections since the start of the pandemic, which has been spreading at lightning speed in recent days.

Increased activity is reported in overcrowded crematoriums and hospitals, and flu medicine is out of stock in pharmacies.