China Further Restricts Power Use Amid Widening Energy Crisis

In a widening energy crisis, China is expanding power use restrictions to at least 20 regions and provinces that contribute more than half to the Chinese economy, adding a bearish risks-off sentiment on global markets, including in the oil market. Twenty regions that account for over 66 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s second-biggest economy have already announced some forms of restrictions on electricity use, especially in heavy and energy-intensive industries, Bloomberg reports. The power outages have spread from…