Australia: Facts & Stats

ECONOMY

The economy of Australia is a prosperous, free market economy dominated by its services sector, representing 68% of Australian GDP. The agricultural and mining sectors (10% of GDP combined) account for 57% of the nation's exports.

The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu. The Australian Securities Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Australia.

Industry:

Australia is one of the most laissez-faire capitalist economies according to indices of economic freedom. Australia's per-capita GDP is slightly higher than that of the UK, Germany, and France in terms of purchasing power parity. The country was ranked fourth in the United Nations 2008 Human Development Index and sixth in The Economist worldwide quality-of-life index 2005.

The emphasis on exporting commodities rather than manufactures has underpinned a significant increase in Australia's terms of trade during the rise in commodity prices since 2000. Australia's current account is more than 7% of GDP negative: Australia has had persistently large current account deficits for more than 50 years. Australia has grown at an average annual rate of 3.6% for over 15 years, well above the OECD average of 2.5%.

Agriculture:

Although Agriculture and natural resources constitute only 3% and 5% of GDP, respectively, they contribute substantially to export performance. Australia's largest export markets are Japan, China, the US, South Korea and New Zealand.

Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products, particularly wheat and wool, minerals such as iron-ore and gold, and energy in the forms of liqufied natural gas and coal. Australia has a labour force of about ten million people.

Trade and economic performance:

In the second half of the twentieth century, Australian trade shifted away from Europe and North America to Japan and other East Asian markets. Regional franchising businesses, now a $128 billion sector, have been operating co-branded sites overseas for years with new investors coming from Western Australia and Queensland.

The Australian economy has been performing nominally better than other economies of the OECD and has supported economic growth for 16 consecutive years. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia, Australian per capita GDP growth is higher than that of New Zealand, US, Canada and The Netherlands. The past performance of the Australian economy has been heavily influenced by US, Japanese and Chinese economic growth.

Despite high global demand for Australian mineral commodities, export growth has remained flat in comparison to strong import growth. Even though Australia enjoys high commodity prices, economists have warned that structural change is needed in order to increase the size of manufacturing sector.