The Canterbury earthquakes will drive New Zealand's economic growth for years to come, but the region's businesses will continue to struggle, University of Canterbury researcher Erica Seville says.
Estimates based on property damage placed the combined cost of the earthquakes at around $20 billion, the equivalent to about 10 per cent of New Zealand's GDP, said Ms Seville, who is an adjunct senior fellow at the university's college of engineering.
"The earthquakes have caused a notable deterioration of the Government's operating deficit over the 2010/2011 year.
"However, the rebuild, which is getting underway in 2012, will drive national investment and growth in the New Zealand economy through 2015."
Businesses would continue to contend with uncertainty regarding insurance, future seismicity, demographics changes, and when and where they will rebuild, she said.
About 1300 buildings (more than 60 percent of the commercial buildings in the Christchurch CBD) have been marked for demolition as a result of the earthquakes, which Ms Seville said had driven up the cost of leases and rentals for commercial accommodation.
Surveys had found up to 50 per cent of businesses following the February earthquake experienced a decrease in revenue, while about 20 per cent of the businesses reported an increase in revenue, she said.
Due to the ongoing aftershocks and long-term environmental uncertainty, the earthquakes had prolonged workplace stress.
Organisations in several industry sectors across Canterbury had identified staff welfare as the biggest challenge facing their organisation following the disaster,
Ms Seville will be one of the chairs at a major Australasian natural hazards conference, to be attended by 250 specialists at the university's campus next week.
Her overview of the Canterbury earthquakes and their economic and business outcomes represents the first part of a series of reports on the earthquakes and their impacts for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).
