Australia’s three-decade unbroken run of economic growth is in large part due to its success in tapping the rise of its largest trading partner, China.
But as the deadly coronavirus outbreak shuts down a swath of the Chinese economy, just as Australia suffers its own crisis in the form of the devastating wildfires emergency, economists are warning that the 28-year stretch is under threat.
“There is a very real risk that gross domestic product will contract as a result of the combined drag from the bushfires and coronavirus,” said Sarah Hunter, economist at BIS Oxford Economics. “Whether we go from this to a recession critically depends on how the outbreak unfolds.”