A MTI Consulting’s study has found that even though the Swine flu pandemic might be restricted to a few countries, the economic implications of it will extend globally.
“Even though travel restrictions may be positive for containing the disease, it means that airlines, particularly the North American carriers could start losing traffic immediately. Hence, Swine Flu could severely affect the travel and tourism industries,” an MTI press release said.
It said that Swine Flu could prove to be an opportunity for some drug makers. “Swiss based Roche’s Tamiflu and British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza are both recommended drugs for seasonal flu and have been proved to work against the disease. With swine flu emerging this year drug makes could have a good year ahead.”
The release said that the World Bank estimated in 2008, before the current global recession that a flu pandemic could cost US$ 3 trillion and result in a nearly 5% drop in world gross domestic product. “The initial impact can be noted in the Forex market with peso falling to about 5% against the dollar immediately following the outburst.
Since the global consumer confidence is relatively low one might speculate a dent in the global demand and supply. In turn, this would affect business spending and investment plans. One can make a comparison to the past outbreak of SARS, which caused a severe dip in the private consumption,” it added. |
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