The Myth of China’s Lockdown

Inflationphobic narratives are focused on Covid lockdowns in China’s major cities, driving supply chain disruptions. The lockdowns are a political exercise crafted with techniques such as “closed loops” to avoid sending the county’s all-important central plan off track. Judging by objective shipping data, China’s output directed to the rest of the world is only minimally affected. As lockdowns ease, the alternate inflationphobic narrative that this will drive commodity prices higher makes no sense, if the lockdowns’ impacts were trivial to begin with.