Updated
March 05, 2020 11: 24: 05
As the impact of COVID-19 takes hold, the head of Australia’s Department of Treasury has flagged an urgent need for targeted stimulus, backed by broader support to aid the economic recovery.
Key points:
- The head of Treasury said the negative impact of bushfires and coronavirus would be larger than economic growth in the previous quarter
- He flagged targeted spending would be needed initially, followed by broader stimulus measures
- The Government is promising a response that is “targeted”, “scalable” and “responsible”
Steven Kennedy told Senate estimates the virus would wipe at least 0.5 percentage points off growth in the March quarter, more than double the predicted im