Coronavirus ‘could trigger $34bn hit to Aus GDP’

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) chief economist Jeremy Thorpe has modelled a scenario which would see coronavirus cause a $34 billion hit to Australian GDP. “This is not necessarily a prediction, but rather modelling what a different environment could look like,” he told Sky News. The model suggests global GDP could fall by $1.1 trillion USD and Australian GDP by $34 billion over a year. “Obviously it’s more extreme than the government is talking about because we’re talking about it becoming a true global pandemic”. “To put that in context though, at the height of the GFC the global economy contracted by 5.4 per cent and we are talking here about a 1.3 per cent reduction. “So we are not talking about GFC-like numbers.” Image: Getty

from National | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2TsrZvl