Economist Who Said SARS Cost $40 Billion Sees Bigger Hit Now - Bloomberg

Economist Who Said SARS Cost $40 Billion Sees Bigger Hit Now - Bloomberg:

The global cost of the coronavirus could be three or four times that of the 2003 SARS outbreak that sapped the world’s economy by $40 billion, according to the economist who calculated that figure.

The sheer growth in the Chinese economy over the last 17 years means the global health emergency triggered by the coronavirus outbreak has far greater potential to gouge global growth, according to Warwick McKibbin, professor of economics at the Australian National University in Canberra. 

“It’s just a mathematical thing,” McKibbin said in a phone interview. “Most of the GDP loss that we saw in the SARS model, and in reality, was China slowing down. And so, with China much bigger, you’d expect the billions would be much bigger.”

While difficult to pinpoint a precise cost as the crisis is still unfolding, the impact will be experienced mostly through changes in “human psychology,” he said. “Panic is what seems to be the biggest drain on the economy, rather than deaths.”