Impact of virus on business revealed

THE coronavirus pandemic has forced seven in every 10 businesses to change the way they operate, according to polling by the statistics bureau.

Seventy per cent of companies also told the Australian Bureau of Statistics they had suffered a decrease in revenue as a result of COVID-19.

The survey, carried out in the week to May 19, found three quarters of companies had tapped some form of emergency government support to help them through the fallout from the pandemic.

More than half had made use of wage subsidies under the Jobkeeper program, while nearly 40 per cent had made use of other support.

ABS head of industry statistics John Shepherd said “businesses that had changed the way they operate were more than twice as likely to report a decrease in revenue compared with those that were trading normally, 83 per cent against 37 per cent”.

The findings came as Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe yesterday warned against a “premature” withdrawal of fiscal stimulus.

That would risk “damaging” the economy were it not robust enough come September 30, when the emergency support measures are broadly due to expire, Dr Lowe said.

The polling by the ABS is the latest in a series of extra surveys it is carrying out to assess the impact of the pandemic.

According to separate research from the bureau yesterday, business investment fell 1.6 per cent in the three months to March, seasonally adjusted, compared with the previous quarter.