Fed: Drought will wipe $5 bln from ag production: ABS

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Fed: Drought will wipe $5 bln from ag production: ABS

CANBERRA, Dec 4 AAP - The drought will wipe more than $5 billion from agriculturalproduction, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said today.

In a revision of the drought's expected impact, the ABS said the drought would cut0.7 per cent from GDP this financial year.

It said gross agriculture product would fall to $17.4 billion this year from $22.5billion in 2001/02, a drop of almost 23 per cent.

The gross added value of agriculture is expected to fall to $16.2 billion from $21.1 billion.

The ABS said one of the hardest hit areas would be in cereal crops, with gross valueexpected to fall by more than 50 per cent to less than $1 billion this month.

The impact on non-cereal crops was likely to hit early next year, with a drop in grossvalue of more than $500 million.

AAP sw/bwl

KEYWORD: ECONOMY DROUGHT