Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the economic impact of coronavirus outbreak is complete different to those of the global financial crisis. “This health crisis – with economic, significant economic implications – is different from a global financial crisis.”

“This is a health crisis which has had serious disruptive impact on … the movement of people, and of goods around the world. That obviously disrupts supply chains and has a suppressing impact on demand,” he added.

“It is a very different set of economic circumstances and issues we are seeking to address. The most important thing is the cashflow, particularly of more vulnerable small- and medium-sized enterprises; the workers – those who work for those businesses – and ensuring that they are in a position to be there on the other side when the economy bounces back.”

He said the Treasury is working through the details of a “targeted”, “measured” and “scalable” fiscal plan. The plan will be ” targeted on the real diagnosis of the economic issue we are looking to confront here.”

Australian AiG Performance of Manufacturing index dropped to 44.3 in February, down from 45.4. That’s the fourth straight months of contraction in the manufacturing sector, last occurred back in 2014. It’s also the lowest monthly reading in nearly five years. All sectors were in contraction except for food & beverages.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox warned, “The disruptive effects of the coronavirus, including on supply chains, are deepening and adding to the slowdown that has been in train since the closing months of 2019… The coronavirus is negatively impacting the exports of fast-moving consumable items to China and a number of businesses reported supply chain difficulties arising from factory shutdowns in China.”

TD securities inflation gauge dropped -0.1% mom in February. Company gross operating profits dropped -3.5% qoq in Q4 versus expectation of -1.2% qoq.