May 26 Reuters Alibaba Group, on Thursday said it would not give a forecast for the current fiscal year due to COVID19 risks as it reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2014.

The ecommerce giant said coronavirus resurgence in China, and lockdowns imposed to curb its spread in Shanghai and other cities weighed on its business by hindering merchants from shipping goods and making consumers focus on buying necessities.

Online physical goods GMV gross merchandise value of our China retail marketplaces, excluding unpaid, saw yearonyear decline in the lowteens percentage in April, Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang told analysts on a postearnings call.

April was the first month of the first quarter of Alibaba39;s current fiscal year and one when the COVID19 curbs hit particularly hard.

To give you a sense of the scope of impact Based on consumer address, cities with new COVID cases in April represented more than half of our China Retail Marketplaces GMV, Zhang said, adding that Alibaba39;s key supply chain and logistics hubs were also affected.

While delivery services resumed in May, they were taking time to fully recover due to factors such as parcel backlogs, the company said.

Alibaba said in a statement it believed it was not prudent to give financial guidance for the year ahead given COVID19related risks outside of its control and which were difficult for us to predict.

SLOWING ECONOMY

The company reported revenue rose 9 to 204.05…