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Staff Reporter
The Queensland, Northern NSW and Victorian floods could detract 1 per cent from short term economic growth, new research has found.
According to AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver, flooding continues to wreak havoc on the nation. As a result, expectations of the damage bill and the hit to economic growth in the March quarter continue to escalate.
“We now expect the damage bill to property, equipment, infrastructure, etc, to be around $15 billion with the floods likely to detract from short term economic growth concentrated in the current quarter,” he said.
Mr Oliver said the floods had curbed the RBA’s need to tighten monetary policy sooner rather than later.
“Increases in prices for food, housing costs and petrol prices are expected to push up the consumer price index by 0.7 per cent in the December quarter pushing the annual rate of inflation up to 3 per cent. Underlying inflation is likely to also rise by around 0.7 per cent in the quarter or 2.5 per cent year on year.”
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