As governments around the world scramble to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the situation in China may have “passed its worst,” according to the regional chief investment officer of UBS Global Wealth Management’s Kelvin Tay.
There is a “semblance that production capability is actually now coming back to the Chinese economy,” Tay said, citing a decline in the number of reported infections in the country.
That will likely make the Chinese economy “the first in the world” to get back on track, he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.
Tay’s comments came ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Wuhan on Tuesday, the city where the disease was first reported and the worst hit in the country. It was his first visit since the outbreak in December.
“Xi Jinping’s visit of Wuhan is a symbolic move that shows China is recovering from COVID-19,” Iris Pang, ING’s chief economist for Greater China, told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Tuesday.
But Pang expressed caution. “I am quite wary about this because there are more and more imported cases into China and therefore, the spreading of coronavirus from imported cases and also the recovery of workers work in office and also factories, might also create another wave of coronavirus cases in China,” she said. “So I am not that optimistic.”
Asked about the danger of China seeing a resurgence in cases due to the diseases being imported from overseas, Tay from UBS said: “It’s actually easier for the Chinese to control that” as they can control the airports and ports.
“If you have uncontactable tracing or uncontactable spreads amongst the local population, that is probably a lot more difficult to control,” he said.
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