Data released in February gave an early indication of how the Australian economy has been impacted by the bushfires and coronavirus.

The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered its near-term growth forecast for the year to June 2020 from 2.5% to 2.0%.

Australian, US and European share markets all fell by more than 8% in February. Commodity prices also fell, although gold was up more than 5% due to its safe haven status.

The RBA cut the cash rate to a new record low of 0.50%.
The decision was made to soften the impact of the coronavirus on the back of weak economic data.