Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrision offered his support to Covid-19 hotspot state Victoria, detailing additional childcare and mental health investments as Australians cope with another lockdown. The prime minister announced millions of dollars in investments in mental health services and platforms like Headspace, Lifeline and Beyond Blue.
Victoria’s spiraling Covid-19 outbreak and the closure of large tracts of the southeastern state’s economy is likely to prolong Australia’s first recession in almost three decades.
A curfew in Melbourne, the shuttering of swathes of the retail and manufacturing sectors and tight limits on construction for six weeks are set to result in another quarterly contraction in gross domestic product, said Terry Rawnsley at consultancy SGS Economics & Planning.
The economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter, likely declined about 7% in the second and probably 4-5% in the third, said Rawnsley, one of the foremost economists on Australia’s regions. “This has sort of confirmed that we’re going to have three consecutive quarters of decline in GDP,” he said. “It’s a pretty grim run of economic news.”
The outbreak in Victoria, which accounts for almost a quarter of Australia’s GDP, threatens to overwhelm a recovery in other parts of Australia. The effective isolation of the state and sporadic outbreaks in neighboring New South Wales are likely to start eroding confidence in the rest of Australia, which had been in the vanguard of nations enjoying early success in flattening the curve of new infections.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm
QUICKTAKE ON SOCIAL:
Follow QuickTake on Twitter: twitter.com/quicktake
Like QuickTake on Facebook: facebook.com/quicktake
Follow QuickTake on Instagram: instagram.com/quicktake
Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2FJ0oQZ
Email us at quicktakenews@gmail.com
QuickTake by Bloomberg is a global news network delivering up-to-the-minute analysis on the biggest news, trends and ideas for a new generation of leaders.
