(Yicai Global) March 13 -- As China goes back to work and production after the Covid-19 epidemic starts to come under control, commercial activity in most cities is gradually getting back on track, a study of the business dynamism of 336 urban centers shows, and trading has already regained 67.5 percent of its fourth-quarter level, with recovery comparatively swifter among small and medium cities.

The results of a study recently jointly published by Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Research Institute of Information Technology at Beijing's prestigious Tsinghua University mainly analyzed Big Data on business activity and movement of people up until March 10.

The level of commercial behavior was quite high in most cities outside of the virus ground zero of Hubei province as of that date and, though the differential was not great, smaller and mid-sized ones were getting back up and running at a faster clip, the study found. On that day, Shanwei in southeastern Guangdong province, Quanzhou in its neighboring Fujian province and eastern Jiangsu's Xuzhou came in at first, second and third, respectively, for speedy recuperation.

"Cities with relatively slower recoveries are mostly those with larger migrant populations," Chen Wen, a researcher at Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, told Yicai Global.

The epidemic brought China's commercial activity almost to a standstill during the country's Lunar New Year holiday, the research data show, with not even one-tenth of those engaged in business plying it in the period compared with the year before. The data show a phased jump from Jan. 31 onward with the gradual resumption of work everywhere. 

The trend of commercial activity in China's most active economic region the Yangtze River Delta area was basically in step with the national one. On March 10, the average business activity in the delta reached 66.75 percent, but slightly lower than the 0.72  percentage points for the country as a whole.

Wuhan remained at a low ebb of commercial activity of only 1.78 percent on Jan. 28, and this grew sluggishly until March 6, at which point it had rebounded to 15.27 percent. The provincial capital city's business bustle jumped between March 8 and 9 till, by March 10, it had sprung back to about 30 percent. The trend of business activity in many other cities in Hubei parallels that of Wuhan.

The current urban business recovery is proceeding relatively briskly, but a certain distance remains to go until complete restoration, Chen said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Ben Armour