Swine flu in Australia shows minor economic impact

Swine flu may crimp Australia’s gross domestic product by 0.5 per cent this year and cease to affect the economy in 2010, economists in Melbourne said. The effect of workplace absenteeism on business investment and the labor market will likely peak this quarter, reducing the nation’s GDP by as much as 1.3 per cent, said George Verikios, an economist at Monash University. While industries tied to international travel were “strongly affected,” the overall effect was “more like a drop in the ocean,” he said. The Washington-based World Bank said in June the severity of H1N1 would probably rival the 1968 pandemic, which cost an estimated 0.7 per cent of global GDP. Australia recorded 191 pandemic influenza-associated deaths. In Australia, where swine flu cases peaked in late July, the flow-on effects on businesses of employees taking sick leave and parents taking time off work to care for children will be most obvious in the current quarter, Verikios said.