Business Impacts of Covid-19 on Australia
I was searching for Australian Business Confidence data on the back of the release of the monthly NAB Business Survey yesterday. The results aren’t great with the index/tracker taking a dive in March
I was looking for this information as my idea was to use the data along with web-scraped share price data from Yahoo Finance to see which companies have had some level of correlation with movements in the Business Survey index. No joy here since I no longer have access to tools like Bloomberg where that was easily available (one of the perks I miss from being in that space).
Anyway, during my search on business indicators, I went to the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) site and found that they have a page dedicated to Covid-19 and the impact it has on Business Indicators (https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/5676.0.55.003Main+Features1March%202020).
Unfortunately, the data shown so far is not able to be downloaded but they have some interesting insights from the tables shown here
- Businesses of all sizes are expecting the pain is going to get worse over the coming weeks
2. Most industries have been affected but there is a large gap in professional/technical services where the impact is not being felt as much now (current) but many surveyed strongly believe it is coming (expected).
3. Reduction of demand was the main impact to businesses with staff shortages coming in after that
It’s an interesting time for businesses all around Australia as many people search for terms on Google that could affect them (work from home, job loss and travel restrictions).
Nonetheless, I am still on the lookout for upcoming releases by the ABS to give a clearer view on the impact this virus is having on the economy. Some of these upcoming datasets are:
Until then, I’ll keep an eye out for anything interesting.
Stay safe out there folks.
