MH17 affects business confidence: Rio chief

Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh has warned the MH17 crash and Israel’s invasion of Gaza have added to uncertainty facing business across the world.

Addressing the B20 business leaders conference in Sydney, Mr Walsh said businesses had been looking forward to certainty at a broad level for some time.

But that had been undermined by the tragedies of the last 12 hours.

“Certainly today’s news of the airline disaster in the Ukraine, Israel moving into Gaza, this is not conducive to the investment climate that all of us need,” he said.

“A real tragedy for all involved and creating greater uncertainty in the world.”

Treasurer Joe Hockey believes the international community will have to “see through” the fall in confidence that will flow from the crash

Mr Hockey touched on the events overnight given many people had flown in from overseas to attend the B20 conference.

“Gee whiz, I think we all reflect carefully on the terrible event overnight,” he said.

“How those sorts of events can undermine confidence in a very short period of time.

“How we’ve just got to see them through no matter how tragic they are.”