Renewed COVID lockdowns are weighing heavily on China's business activity, consumer confidence and financial markets, adding to a sharp downdraft on the global economy from surging inflation and rising interest rates. OPEN-DOOR POLICYYi Gang, governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), said China will continue to deregulate its markets. With China's zero-COVID policy expected to remain in place through at least the winter, or longer, its near-term growth outlook is bleak. After surprisingly high gross domestic product growth of 3.9% in the third quarter, Nomura expects growth to drop again, with zero or even negative sequential growth from the previous quarter. "We maintain our GDP growth forecast of 2.8% year-on-year for the fourth quarter with a corresponding sequential growth forecast at 0.0%."

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