Economic impact of floods
- The east coast floods were caused by the La Niña weather event. La Niña will continue until at least March. El Niño and La Niña are regular climactic events and there has been no discernible change in their severity or regularity in recent years.
- The forerunner of today’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Resource Economics (BITRE) undertook the seminal study on the costs of natural disasters in Australia in 2001.
- Based on the analysis from the BITRE of all 77 flood events (cost greater than $10 million) from 1967 to 1999, CommSec estimates that the cost in current dollars would be almost $52 billion. The entire 1974
floods across the nation are estimated to cost just over $4 billion in today’s dollars. - Economists are tending to over-estimate the economic and financial impact of the Queensland floods. While activity is lost in the short-term, it is boosted in the longer-term through rebuilding, repair and
refurbishment work. This restoration work has already begun.