WHEN the Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on March 3 to a record low of 0.5 per cent, the rationale was that the coronavirus was "expected to delay progress in Australia towards full employment and the inflation target".
Now, just two weeks later, emergency policy rather than long-term outlook is the name of the game as COVID-19 causes economic chaos and social uncertainty around the world.
The global case total passed 198,000 yesterday, with more than 7950 dead - a doubling of both figures in less than a fortnight.
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Recent days have seen an almost endless list of cancellations and suspensions of mass entertainment events, from the world's biggest sporting codes through to the myriad music and arts festivals that are an annual mark on many calendars, including here in the Hunter.
The much-derided early run on toilet paper has widened to see shelves emptied of all sorts of products.
The Australian stockmarket has fallen off a cliff since late February, and while the biggest impact of that for most people is a hopefully short-term reduction in their superannuation balances, for self-funded retirees already crimped by the low interest rates offered to savers, the effect is immediate and real.
Yet for all of this, there is a strong feeling that the coronavirus is yet to make its full presence felt.
Most schools remain open, at least for the time being, and while the internet allows some jobs to be done from home, it's hardly an option for construction workers or coalminers or garbage collectors.
The longer the epidemic continues on these shores, the greater the pressure will be on employers, both to keep people on for humanitarian and reputational reasons, and to cut labour costs in the name of financial survival.
This is a very different trial to the most recent threats to Australia's stability - the 1987 stockmarket crash, the early 1990s recession and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
The federal and NSW governments have both announced stimulus packages, but the real test will come if widespread illness overloads the health system, on one hand, while forced isolation and supply chain shortages bring the broader economy to a halt, on the other.
Especially when governments and households alike are mired in debt, with little if anything put away for that often warned-about rainy day.
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