Macroeconomic cost of Hurricane Helene will be small

Hurricane Helene will affect the labor market, consumer spending, housing, corporate profits, and industrial production, but the implications for Q4 GDP are minimal.

What you will learn:

• The toll on the regional economies could be sizable but the macro implications are small. Typically, natural disasters don’t leave a significant mark on US GDP, save for Hurricane Katrina.
• The hurricane will add a lot of volatility to the high-frequency data, but it is not enough to warrant a change to our forecast for Q4 GDP.