The coronavirus outbreak is likely to result in the Australian economy suffering a quarter of negative growth, ANZ has warned, with the tourism and education sectors set to be the hardest hit.

In analysis released on Wednesday morning, ahead of a speech by Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe on the coming year, senior economists Felicity Emmett and David Plank said the virus on top of the recent fires would have a much larger impact than first thought.

Coronavirus is likely to result in the Australian economy contracting through the March quarter, according to ANZ economists. Credit:Chris Hopkins

ANZ had initially expected the virus to lower growth by 0.2 percentage points, but now says it appeared the virus and the response to it across the world would likely take half a percentage point off growth through the first three months of this year. The bushfires would also likely have a negative impact.

Combined, the ANZ now believes GDP will shrink by 0.1 percentage points in the March quarter. It would be the first quarter of negative growth since the March quarter of 2011 which was due to heavy flooding that affected ports across Queensland and Western Australia.