University of Tasmania's Joaquin Vespignani, the program director of the ANU COVID-19 and Macroeconomics research group, said the economic recovery is likely to be "Nike tick" shaped - a sharp decline and then a longer, steadier incline back to where it was.

"We talk about if it's going to be a V shape recovery - come down and come back up again quickly - a U shape recovery, or a kind of Nike symbol," he said.

"And this is probably what's going to happen, the Nike one.

"Some small shops and restaurants - they may never recover, they may never open again. That's why unemployment for example will be a slow recovery.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"And it will also depend on what happens around the world. Australia depends on the international market. If there is less of a demand from China, Australia is going to suffer. If we have less international students coming to Australia, we will also have a problem.

"It's going to take more than one year, for sure."

However, he said the lessons learned from the Global Financial Crisis 12 years ago affected the response to COVID-19 in two ways.

The first is that governments, including Australia's, acted quickly and decisively in the face of an external shock.

"I think that wouldn't have happened without the GFC," he said.

The second was that living through the GFC has taught the general public that even in grave economic circumstances, business does recover.

"[During the GFC], you would say, 'Oh my god, I've lost 20 per cent of my superannuation', or something like that," he said. "And you look at it now, and it's recovered."

"There are good periods and there are bad periods, and there's not much we can do about that.

"But things get better - things will get better at some point."