Majority of Australian businesses expect hit from coronavirus - ABS

FILE PHOTO: An employee posts signs on a window of an office, as New South Wales begins shutting down non-essential businesses and moving toward harsh penalties to enforce self-isolation to avoid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

A vast majority of Australian businesses expect to be hit by coronavirus-related restrictions with a fall in demand the most common impact experienced so far, the country's statistics office said on Thursday.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the results of its first survey on business impacts of COVID-19 as part of its effort to gauge the early economic hit from the pandemic.

Approximately half of the country's businesses surveyed, or 49%, had experienced an adverse impact as a result of COVID-19 during the mid-March data collection period, while 86% expect to be hit in future months, the ABS said.

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)