let's bring in stephen engle in hong kong. let's look at the lockdowns and the market. why are they not too enthused by the policy response? twice in beijing they are having their second test of three today. 11 of the districts will have their second test tomorrow. there is concern from the people of beijing. they know what happens in shanghai. they know this will be a precursor to the shanghai style lockdown but authorities across china that are faced with even the slightest number of cases are trying to get ahead of the curve, influencing policy, fairly strict policy before it turns into a shanghai style situation. for example, a city up in inner mongolia and smaller cities -- these two cities have been put into lockdown. they had to reported cases. and the whole city is in lockdown. that puts pressure on commodities space. this is the leading rare earth capital of china and it is the number two producer in that area of coal. more pressure on the chinese economy. xi jinping is coming out and saying we need to go back to the old playbook and put out an all-out effort i

let's bring out stephen engle.g to contain the operate, and how close to breaking our the people? >> august the chinese authorities are sticking to their zero covid dynamic clearing strategy, essentially isolating every positive case, and what we are seeing in shanghai now adding to the frustration, the latest count upwards of 150,000 close contacts but into isolation as well. we are getting new numbers for thursday, 21,232 new cases, the majority are asymptomatic cases, but still this is the blueprint and the pathway forward by the party to contain the outbreak in china's biggest city with 25 million people. a city that was spared the first couple of years from operates until now when omicron has taken hold, and there is growing frustration. they locked on half of the city from march 28 until the 31st in the second half of the city, which should have been wrapped up a couple of days ago by the fifth. because they are finding 20,000 cases a day plus tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands close contacts more

let's bring in stephen engle. how is shanghai going to be able to contain this outbreak?ustainable? how are we seeing the popular reaction or unpopular reaction? >> shanghai is similar to what we saw in hong kong on a larger scale. shanghai was unscathed for the first couple of years of the pandemic. then omicron hit and it has spread unlike hong kong which has so far avoided a lockdown. shanghai has seen phased lockdowns of the two sides of which were supposed to be ended the last week of march then the larger population on the western side of the shanghai was supposed to end on the fifth. shanghai is finding or and more cases, 19,900 plus just wednesday alone. they have been adding several thousand every day. they are also adding tens if not hundreds of thousands of isolation beds conscripting neighborhood convention centers and gyms and halls to add more and more beds because they are doubling down on zero covid. what is happening is the longer the lockdown goes, the longer you are trying to keep 25 million people locked up in their homes, the more pressure is put on t

let's bring in stephen engle. obviously welcome news for investors in the chinese game space, but tell us about the headwinds that remain. stephen: well, they are not out of the woods yet. the gaming players, that's very good news, but a company like tencent still has of course -- is under pressure from other fronts. tencent just recently had to pull the plug on its penguin e-sports venture that was going to combine to create a big amazon like twitch service, a chinese version of the twitch service of e-sports livestreaming, but beijing abolished -- kaboshed they all eeked out gains as well. the administration of china published a list of 45 game titles that received approval. there had been a hiatus since july of last year as authorities really attack to gaming industry including the state media once used a term that video gaming for young people was like spiritual opium. that was a characterization that was later scrubbed from the internet but tell, you can get an idea of how the government viewed gaming's influe

stephen engle. laura wright with the test the results. macron and le pen. dani: let's start with ukraine. germany's foreign minister says the country will stop importing russian oil and will halt natural gas imports. it's the strongest promise yet from germany to cut itself off from the russian energy complex. it strongly relies on it and has been reluctant to abandon it. joining us now is maria tadeo. this is something that germany has hesitated to do. is it different this time? maria: it depends on who you ask. you have to factor in that this is a coalition and you see that they aren't in tune. the most hawkish on russia said by the end of the year, we are going to pull out of russian oil. at that point, we want to have a debate on what we do with gas. christian was more muted in that reaction. a lot of this has to do with the german greens trying to push the entire coalition to take a tougher stance. at this point, we don't get the impression that germany is willing to do this overnight but the country is coming under huge pressure to tape -- takes a mea

let's bring in stephen engle. what is the latest on the shanghai lockdown? the fact that of course they have been in lockdown now since march 28, we're seeing a record number of cases in shanghai. yes, they are testing more, said they will find more cases, but the numbers in shanghai on saturday, we will get sunday's numbers in a little bit, is 24,9 43. that's the majority that has been reported across china for the same day of 26,355. so, it's five times the number that we saw on the first day of the phased lockdown of the city, of just under 5000. so infections keep climbing, despite the lockdown. we did see on friday reports of those scattered protests. we need to eat, we want our freedom, this and that. so patience is running thin as we are entering what now would be the third week of what is essentially a citywide lockdown. it was supposed to be a phased lockdown in the east then spread west, but because the numbers keep climbing it is essentially a citywide lockdown. yes, people can go out if their apartment complexes do not have any cases, but still,

let's get to stephen engle. sly, this was welcome news for investors in the chinese game space but will some headwinds, right? stephen: that's right. these gaming companies are not out of the woods because there is still pressure on livestreaming. tencent pulled the plug on its penguin e-sports venture that was going to create a twitch like service in china, but they pulled the plug on that, pulling the plug by doing so there's pressure on elements of the gaming sector which of course over the last 10 months has been under pressure as government regulators really cracked down on the negative influencing aspects of games. one state media called it spiritual opium before that was kind of a scrub from the internet. it gave an indication of the government's view of gaming and the generation of gamers and undesirable behavior that the government sees gaming creating. this is welcome news because it is the first time since last july that we had a batch of new titles approved. it was a long hiatus but there was a list o

for more, let's bring in stephen engle in hong kong.cords being set across the country. >> that's right. the additional 51 deaths on top of the 39 reported saturday, which was a record high for the latest round and really shanghai's first major episode of the outbreak, predominantly omicron and predominantly asymptomatic but lockdowns persist, entering their fifth week since it first happened. frustration has been growing. there was some hope among the lockdown residents that there could be gradual easing but authorities are now bowing to strict sleep enforce nine new actions announced friday by the municipal government and we have seen photos. i cannot confirm exactly but footers have been circulating of at least two meter high fences going around certain neighborhoods or across roads to help contain people and their movements. everyone has seen the video of people being frustrated as food supplies and medicals lies are committed. beijing, it might be your turn. show young district is going to start mass testing this week. paul: more >

let's bring in our chief asia correspondent in hong kong, stephen engle, and our asian market reporterreifeld reynolds in sydney. we have seen fears of lockdowns, mass testing in beijing. what do we know about potentially more lockdowns? stephen: what is happening is that local officials in various city, whether it is beijing or upper mongolia,, officials asked trying to ramp up their measures earlier than what happened in shanghai, to avoid a repeat of what is happening in shanghai with 20,000 cases. it dipped below 17,000 the day before yesterday, but still, a bit of a humanitarian and economic crisis in shanghai. they are trying to get ahead of that in beijing. the most populous district in beijing will have its second of free tests today. 12 other districts had their first test yesterday. one official said they found five cases. five cases out of 3.8 million people. but still, there is that a threat and people are lining up to buy groceries because they fear that what happened in shanghai will potentially happen in beijing. beijing and shanghai get the headlines, but places like in

haslinda: chief north asian correspondent stephen engle in hong kong. we thank you so much for that. let sit look at where markets are crude now, risk off movement bailing across markets this morning. let's bring in bloomberg strategist mark cranfield. multiple themes have played. an aggressive fed. also to do with china's covid situation. take a look at the yuan. it is extending its losses for the day after seeing the worst week and seven years. the yuan continues to be under pressure. mark: yes indeed. this is probably the big telling port that we saw last week. -- telling point. orchids are under pressure because of the eminent hikes which are going to be 50 basis points are more later in the year. so there was already a lot of angst anyway and then we had the break out last week. it was significant not just for the provinces but across emerging markets as well. you're seeing a follow-through today where people are getting really concerned about the growth outlook in china. just heard stephen talking about the risks to beijing which were already on t

let's bring out stephen engle. we know as we continue to see these fresh new highs for infections in shanghai? stephen: you reported the numbers, 25,000 or so in shanghai alone, most of the new infections in china. wenzhou will also start mass testing of its people. 18 million. they found a few cases. in shanghai over the next couple of weeks, essentially we went from just under 5000 on march 28 at the beginning of the face lockdown of the city to now when he 5000. -- now to 25,000. this despite the city is entirely in lockdown. infections keep climbing. the state department from the u.s. put out a statement asking americans to reconsider travels to china to avoid hotspots like shanghai, because numbers keep going up, a record high now. we haven't gotten sunday's number but the trend has been going up every day. they talked about, the u.s. state department, talked about the potential of arbitrary enforcement of virus restrictions. the ministry of foreign affairs in beijing shot back against the criticism from the u

denying access to medical care, let's get to our north asia correspondent, stephen engle, he has the latest on one of the biggest crises present she has faced. the scale of unrest or pushback, could you give the world some context? stephen: just look at that footed you saw of the overpasses in shanghai. it is a bustling metropolis, the most cosmopolitan city in china. the financial capital, second richest city after beijing. 25 million people. it is, dare i say, a bit of a ghost town right now. there no end in sight to the zero covid strategy, they are keeping the city in lockdown. 25 million people, if you are not lockdown in your home, you isolate it. everyone has been infected, was the close contacts. many of which, even those who test positive are asymptomatic are sent into isolation. patience is running thin. if you've ever been to shanghai, they marched to the beat of a different drum. they are a different breed, they are complaining, unlike in other places, there are a bit more vocal. i talked to people who are in their homes for now, going on two weeks. they are saying we need

stephen engle explores if this will do much for japan's economic malaise. n: every year, japan marks a national holiday to celebrate adulthood for teenagers turning 20, but that legal age of adult hood is dropping to 20, the first such change in a century and a half. with an aging population and inclining birthrate, the thinking is it is time to get those teenagers contributing as adults to the economy sooner. >> we are expecting the younger generation to be more active. stephen: there are fears many young men and women with little financial knowledge could fall into debt or fall victim to fraud. areas that have until now needed parental approval will be dropped to 18, such as applying for a credit card or mobile phone contract, renting an apartment, applying for a bank loan or buying stocks. stephen: but the question remains -- will the move make much of a difference for an economy still thawing out from covid? >> the limited spending power of young people means it will not have an immediate economic impact, but with one person, one road, you could see a si

let's bring in chief north asia correspondent stephen engle. t beijing intentions in hong kong? stephen: it is clear that beijing is going to be backing john lee. we are hearing that is the only candidate they're going to be backing. we could have just a one-horserace, more of a selection rather than an election on may 8, if that is the case. and the new chief executive will officially replace carrie lam as chief executive on july 1. now, what we know about john lee is that, except for the past 10 months when he became the chief secretary, the number-two official in hong kong after carrie lam, he spent his entire career in law enforcement, dating back to 1977 when he joined hong kong police. he rose to be deputy police commissioner in charge of the management branch of the force, then became the security secretary on the dates you see there, 2017-2021. that means he oversaw the implementation of the national security law as chief of security and also spearheaded the crackdown of pro-democracy activists following protests and 2019 and 2020. he ha

shery: ever stephen engle with the latest from hong kong.om the bank of korea saying that inflation may remain at the 4% level for a while, this as we had the march cpi number at 4.1% year on year, the highest since 2011. the bank of korea is expected to decide rates next week and it is saying that the 2022 inflation will be exceeding february projections. this as we continue to see airport information -- upward inflation risks increasing. even when you strip out energy prices, core consumer prices in south korea have risen 3.3% year on year, also the highest reading since 2011. so we will be watching debbie ok's rate decision next week. -- we watching the bok's rate decision next week. sri lanka's economic crisis is going from bad to worse. we will be discussing that next. this is bloomberg. ♪ shery: sri lanka is trying to avoid a political and economic collapse, some saying the default over sovereign debt is unavoidable. our correspondent joins us now with the latest. give us a bit of context about what really led to this crisis. ramsey: g

let's bring in our chief north asia correspondent stephen engle.art of those key consumption periods of the year. it is going to be different this time around. >> you have those two golden weeks, then october holidays come labor day. the five day period that begins tomorrow. those are the main holidays in china. restrictions across the country are extremely limited, especially out of beijing and shanghai, the city of 25 million in lockdown. these ghost town drone shots are telling the story. this is how it works in china, you get the mandate from beijing , then nobody in their provinces or minister polities wants to be blamed for a big covid outbreak, so they take steps to get ahead of the curve and not have a repeat of fortis happening in shanghai. at the same time as we got all those policy moves and statements from xi jinping and the pboc this week, essentially saying, you need to provide job growth. you need to provide infrastructure growth. you need to provide growth. how are you going to do that if everybody is locked down, not participating

let me bring out kathleen hays, and stephen engle. the world bank cut global gdp expectations. how much of that is due to the war in ukraine. there are other factors at play as well. >> some of those other factors linked to the war in ukraine. let us go over those numbers again. back in the middle of last year, the world bank was looking for 5.7% gdp growth. it was cut to 4.1 percent before russia invaded ukraine. it has cut to three point two. nearly a full percentage point. a very dramatic cut. it is due to the fact that they expect major contractions in russia, in ukraine, neighboring eastern countries. if you go beyond that, you can see that they are talking about this broader shock. broader shocks vacancy in asia. this rapid supplies of commodities. you cannot produce as much and there is not as much to bite. it costs more to get food and gas. financial stress on companies that fall behind and maybe they cannot get credit. if you are an exporter, that is kind of bad. they noted poverty in a's -- east asia pacific, and only because of this, there is also the lingering impac

bring in david engel -- stephen engle and hong kong. you are used to seeing jampacked crowds.s, airports, people out and about. it doesn't seem like that's going to happen in a lot of places this time. >> this is the dilemma that is being faced across china. i would not want to be a party boss in a province or municipality right now because they are getting mixed signals. there containing outbreaks if they happen. we have seen lockdowns with just a few documented cases. one province is doing massive testing. they want to prevent another shanghai that has been under lockdown for more than one month. you need to deliver new jobs, but how are you going to do that if you're restricting everyone's movement? the five day holiday begins tomorrow and the government is already estimating movement is going to be down year-over-year by 62%. guess which sector if you want to broad net out -- broaden it out, it has been the services sector which includes travel and hotels and the like. they're going to be hammered. the government is saying road traffic will drop by half from a year ago lev

we speak to our chief asia correspondent stephen engle.anghai going to really just contain this outbreak? >> that's the big question right now. elon musk has a factory in shanghai, so they have been affected. they have some disruptions as well as automakers in other places across china, but in particular, shanghai and the surrounding province and elsewhere is a big manufacturing , shanghai is the home base of many international and multinational companies. these logistics constraints and locking down 25 million people in addition to finding even more isolation beds -- we are hearing tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of more beds are being placed in places like exhibition halls and gymnasiums across shanghai because they are sticking to zero covid strategy. that means isolating anyone who tests positive. you talk about those numbers. shanghai on thursday, now the tally. shanghai is taking the brunt of it right now. the pain now going through a second week are the people isolated at home. they thought this would be pretty much w

and stephen engle, chief north asian correspondent. let me bring you in first what did you make of the speech? stephen: i think he reiterated a lot of comments that have been made daily in the ministry of foreign affairs daily briefings. essentially, taking the high road on a lot of issues. he did announce the global security initiative, but a lot of the main points where, dare i say, pretty vague. but also well-worn comments. he talked a lot about ancient unity. he said we must safeguard peace in asia. we must vigorously promote asian cooperation. we must promote asian unity. and there were a lot of failed jabs perhaps at the united states. he condemns one-sided sanctions. he condemned the long arm jurisdiction and then on the financial front, he warned against economic policy spillover. he did not mention rate hikes, but he was likely alluding to that. he said a cold war mentality will endanger world peace. and he talked a lot about china's role in preserving world peace. of course, this is all against a backdrop of beijing support an

for more, let's bring in stephen engle. what is the latest here. ? stephen: you actually write.ifth -- you are absolutely right. it is the fifth week since the lockdown began. the full citywide lockdown entering his fourth week. frustration is building. the numbers keep on building. the addition of another 21,000 new covid cases. most of them asymptomatic. we will get the sunday numbers later on. it also reported the highest daily covid death toll during this covid outbreak that began in about february. 39 fatalities saturday. now we had 87 since late february. the average age is nearly 79 years of age. they had underlying illnesses. so the frustration is definitely mounting as the city government friday announced it would adopt nine new actions to achieve the goal of quote, no community spread. that is another way of saying zero covid. that quashed a lot of hopes among shanghai residents that perhaps some easing of the restrictions would be forthcoming. but it looks as though there is a doubling down of the zero covid approach. and i have seen the photos. i cannot confirm it bu

our chief north asia correspondent stephen engle, and bloomberg markets co anchor, yvonne man. tony, let's start with you. what is a chance that these horrific images will lead to more sanctions on russia? tony: that is something we will have to keep an eye on in the days ahead. certainly the end of this week. that has been a lot of european outrage including from countries such as germany, and a country like poland, for example, which is like a frontline state in terms of taking in ukrainian refugees from the war, said the eu should hold an emergency meeting and he really discussed cutting off all trade with russia, which of course, it is a big ask of the e.u.. there was a somewhat cryptic comment today from germany that the e.u. should consider at least discussing a natural gas cutoff with russia. another thing that is not easy for e.u. countries to do. clearly, this has galvanized europe's top leaders. there will be a meeting with nato and two foreign ministers in brussels later this week where this is sure to be at the top of the agenda. haidi: tony, some of the images we h

for more, we're joined by stephen engle and kathleen hays.th you and the latest on these new cases across china. reporter: ships are piling up on the coasts,, faced with the lockdown situation. it's compounding each other. beijing does not have as much manufacturing. it's the political capital. this has been home to the central business district, embassies, the most populated and largest geographically in terms of geography, the mass testing that began yesterday, a lot of residents are seeing that as a possible precursor to what happened in other cities when you have mass testing followed by a lockdown. paul: let's get more on that. we have the pboc changing foreign reserve requirement ratios for banks, but does this address the underlying cause, and we are likely to see more action? katheen: it's interesting. talking about new virus cases, lockdown. this has been driving weakness, this expectation is we are going to cut the reserve ratio for banks holding foreign exchange reserves to 8% from 9%, it's intended to slow down the drop. foreign-e

stephen engle, how significant was the call? >> very. the u.s. not to aid russia's war on ukraine. on the military side, lloyd austin meeting with his chinese counterpart. even in a phone call, that is a positive development possibly for both sides to show their position on the matter and from a chinese readout, chinese officials have confirmed they spoke about ukraine and the chinese statement essentially said the u.s. was urged to refrain from using ukraine to smear china. that's a quote. he also urged the stoppage of military provocations at sea. i would imagine that the u.s. has similar stipulations, no aid to ukraine from china. these are tenuous times geopolitically and any phone call between that top defense chiefs from those nations are important but we do not know what the end result was. haidi: xi jinping is expected to give the opening keynote speech. the country is still under lockdown. what do we expect? >> i have been to so many forums. 17 in a row before the pandemic and i was not able to go. this is often when he gives that keynot

. >> stephen engle with the latest.er consolidated net coming in at 11.1 3,000,000,000,001. the estimate was around higher than analysts expected. operating profit higher at 14.12 trillion one. at 77.8 trillion one. it was around 70 tree -- 73 trillion won. we continue to see the robust demand for models. right now samsung first quarter net at 11.1 3 trillion won. chip business operating profit coming in at a .4 5 trillion won . this is we continue to see samsung stocks lagging the broader market. fourth-quarter display business operating profit coming in at 1.0 9 trillion won. let's get to our analyst to our joining us, korea technology analysts. as we continue to see the latest lines fourth-quarter mobile networks business operating profit, 3.8 2 trillion won. first of all, give us your perspective of the latest results. >> good morning and thank you for having me on your program. samsung already announces preliminary guidance on april 7, so there wasn't much of a surprise here. we understand that the strong results a