China's new yuan loans are expected to have dropped in April after a rebound in March as credit demand weakened, a Reuters poll showed, even as the central bank keeps policy accommodative to support the slowing economy, Reuters reported. The Chinese economy has taken a hit as authorities raced to stop the spread of record COVID-19 cases, which have led to a full or partial lockdown in dozens of Chinese cities, including a city-wide shutdown in the commercial hub of Shanghai in April.

China's central bank said on Friday it launch a 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) relending facility to support the transport, logistics and storage sectors which have been hit hard by COVID-19, Reuters reported. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) will better combine its broad-based and structural policy instruments, and constantly optimise its structural policy system, it said in a statement posted on its Wechat account.

A business group warned on Thursday that China’s “dynamic zero Covid” policies have left European companies considerably less willing to continue investing in the country, the New York Times reported. A survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China found that the tone among European businesses in the country had soured since January, when a survey found broad optimism and plans for further investment.

China's central bank on Wednesday pledged monetary policy support to ensure ample liquidity, help businesses badly hit by the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the country and support a recovery in consumption, Reuters reported. The remarks came after a top decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party last week also vowed to support the economy. "(We shall) waste no time planning incremental policy tools to support steady economic growth, stabilise employment and prices ... to provide a fair monetary and financial environment," the People's Bank of China said in a statement on Wednesday.

Throttled by Beijing’s zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, China’s economy is facing a spell of slower growth. Economists are toying with the term “recession” to describe it, the Wall Street Journal reported. A recession commonly means two straight quarters of contraction, and that remains unlikely for China, many economists say. The country has many ways to ensure it posts stronger growth than the U.S. and Europe this year, including the ability to unleash heavy government spending.

Companies reopening factories in locked-down Shanghai are booking hotel rooms to house workers and turning vacant workshops into on-site isolation facilities as authorities urge them to resume work while complying with tough COVID-19 curbs, Reuters reported. Hundreds of companies including multinationals Tesla and 3M have reopened factories in the Chinese economic hub under local guidelines requiring them to isolate workers inside a "closed-loop".

China's three biggest airlines have reported heavy first-quarter losses as prolonged COVID curbs weighed on travel demand and a weakening Chinese currency and rising fuel prices inflated costs, trends which persist in the current quarter, Reuters reported. Analysts expect another year in the red for Chinese airlines as Beijing sticks with its zero-COVID policy to stop the spread of the virus. China Eastern Airlines on Friday reported a first-quarter net loss of 7.8 billion yuan ($1.18 billion) versus 3.8 billion a year earlier.

China will cut import tariffs for all types of coal to zero from May 1, 2022, until March 31, 2023, the finance ministry said on Thursday, as Beijing strives to ensure energy security amid soaring global prices and supply disruption concerns, Reuters reported. Top Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, have repeatedly addressed the vital role of coal in China's energy mix despite climate pledges to gradually reduce coal use and to bring the country's carbon emissions to a peak by 2030.

Oil climbed as Chinese central bank assurances of economic support eased fears that a new round of virus lockdowns will crimp crude demand. Diesel markets also spiked amid a global clamor for supplies, Bloomberg News reported. West Texas Intermediate settled above $101 a barrel after shedding more than 5% in the previous two sessions. China’s central bank pledged to ensure ample liquidity and assist sectors battered by the pandemic even as virus testing expanded in Beijing. The resurgence of Covid-19 has hammered fuel consumption in the world’s second-largest economy.