Corona Virus Outbreak and the Global Energy Demand: A Case of People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The study investigates the impact of corona virus out break on the global energy demand in china using the time series daily data spanning the period 23 rd January to 8 th February 2020 on total cases of corona virus, total population of china, total exchange rate of Chinese currency and international crude oil prices. Using the Philip Perron unit root test for testing the stationarity of the variables, the results revealed that total cases of corona virus, international crude oil price and total population are stationary at level while official exchange of Chinese currency is stationary at first difference. After the testing the existence of co-integration relationship among the variables using Engle Granger test for co-integration, the ordinary least squares test result revealed that total population has positive and significant impact on total cases of corona virus while crude oil price is negative and significantly related to the cases of the virus. The official exchange rate is also negative but insignificant in explaining the cases of the virus. Base on the findings, the researchers therefore recommend that the oil producing countries should reduce their supply of crude oil to the country affected with the virus in order to push the price upward to the desired level and the government of the affected country should maintain restrictions with regards to the movement of its population in order to tackled the spread of the virus.