Chinese commerce ministry released key figures on COVID-19's impact on China's consumption, outbound investment and imports in the first two months of 2020.

The virus outbreak has significantly affected China's consumption – especially catering, lodging and housekeeping sectors, as they have direct contact with consumers.

In January and February, catering income went down by 43 percent. And in February, the income of lodging and housekeeping sectors both went down by at least 75 percent. 

But now those industries have seen rapid resumption, with rates of 80 percent, 60 percent and 40 percent in catering, lodging and housekeeping respectively.

The consumption of automobile is a significant pillar of China's consumption market. But only about 22 billion vehicles were sold in the first two months this year, down 42 percent from the same period last year. And only 310,000 units were sold in February alone, down nearly 80 percent. 

Along with effective control of the outbreak, more automobile sales service shops in China have reopened. According to a survey conducted by China Automobile Dealers Association, 95 percent of the 8,500 automobile sales service shops nation wide have restarted. The central and local governments will take further measures to loosen the limitations on vehicles purchases to boost sales.

In terms of China's trade and commerce with other countries, Chinese companies invested in nearly 150 countries and regions, totaling 15.5 billion U.S. dollars, down one percent year on year. Leasing and business services witnessed the most rapid growth, attracting 6.3 billion U.S. dollars investment, up 43 percent. Also witnessing fast growth in investments are the retail and wholesale sectors, as well as manufacturing and mining. 

Meanwhile, investments into Belt and Road countries saw a large increase. Investments worth 2.7 billion U.S. dollars were poured into to 48 countries, an increase of 18 percent from the year before.

Regarding China's imports in January and February, it was down nearly 300 billion U.S. dollars, or a 2.4-percent-dip year on year. 

A senior official with Chinese Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Trade Department, Liu Changyu, said that with the fast spreading of the coronavirus outbreak around the world, countries are taking stricter measure to contain the outbreak, as the impact on global economy and trade has shown.

"In the list of China's top ten countries with the largest exports going to China, seven of the nations' number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have exceeded 1,000…More and more countries are pausing their production, and their abilities of supplying are declining. The sectors of transportation equipment, energy-chemical industry, electro-mechanical have been hit particularly hard," said Liu.