Bushfire Will Reduce Australia’s GDP by 0.3%

The latest data shows that Australias recruitment advertisements in December saw the largest monthly decline in seven months, due to the severe bushfires in the two most populous states. Data released by ANZ on Tuesday showed that overall recruitment ads in December fell 6.7% month-on-month, while November saw a decline of 1.8%. An average of 142,569 recruitment posts are published each day in December, a decrease of 18.8% over the same period last year, and the lowest since April, 2016.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is likely to mention the negative effects of the wildfire on economic outlook in the February policy statement. The main short term impact of wildfire will be on farm production and private investment. It will also affect the tourism industry in the first half of 2020, but this loss is expected to be offset by the growth in residential buildings.