New COVID-19 strains and the resulting lockdowns have thrown a wrench into the Chinese economy, causing economic and even political strife. But do the current actions to control the recent Omicron outbreak once again risk disrupting consumption and ensnaring supply chains? Or will lifting the lockdowns only increase the spread of COVID-19 and raise anxieties that could spook consumers and markets?
Houze Song, Fellow at MacroPolo, the think tank of the Paulson Institute and author of the 1Q2022 Outlook: Strong but Short Stimulus Expected to Stabilize Growth, answers questions and gives his take on this important snapshot of 2022.
Speakers
Houze Song
Fellow, MacroPolo
hzsong
Houze Song is a Fellow at MacroPolo, the think tank at the Paulson Institute. Mr. Song leads the think tank’s work on the Chinese economy. He specializes in subnational and regional analysis, leading projects on local government debt, regional economic divergence, infrastructure investment, and labor flows. He constructs specialized data sets for research purposes that provide unique insight into the Chinese political economy. His work is read by market participants and policymakers and has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. Previously, Houze was a researcher at the Columbia Global Center (East Asia). He also worked as a research manager at the Unirule Institute, where he assisted the chairman Mao Yushi with research and project management. He holds an MA in quantitative methods and an MPA in international economics, both from Columbia University, and a BA in economics from Peking University.
