The Australian economy has continued to grow in recent years, with a growth rate of 3.2 percent in 2005 and an average GDP growth rate of 3.6 percent over the decade from 1997 to the present. The outstanding problem of the economy is the low national savings rate, Australia was affected by the international external environment in the early 1980s, had experienced an economic recession, the unemployment rate in 1992 was as high as 12%, through the unremitting efforts of the government and the nationals, over the past ten years Australia's economy continued to improve, the government's finances turned from a deficit to a surplus, with the government's fiscal surplus, Australia has been in fiscal surplus since 2001, the yearly With the government's fiscal surplus, Australia has been gradually reducing personal income tax since 2001, and by mid-2008, the unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest level in two decades.
Australia's key economic statistics are as follows:
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): $773 billion (2007)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita: $37,300 (2007)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate: 4.3% (2007)
Unemployment rate: 4.2% ( October 2007)
Currency exchange rate: A$1 = US$0.70 (March 2009)
IndustryAustralia's industry is dominated by mining, manufacturing and construction.In the 2004/2005 financial year, the mining sector was worth A$34.042 billion, or 4.1% of GDP. The manufacturing sector was worth A$88.324 billion, or 10.6% of GDP. The construction sector was worth A$53.712 billion, or 6.5 percent of GDP.
Agriculture and animal husbandryAustralia's agriculture and animal husbandry is very developed, and the production and export of agricultural and animal husbandry products occupy an important position in the national economy, and it is the world's largest exporter of wool and beef.
Australia's agriculture and animal husbandry output amounted to A$23.168 billion in 2004/2005, accounting for 2.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and the agricultural and animal husbandry land area is 440 million hectares, which accounted for 57% of the country's land area. In 2004, 346,000 people were employed in agriculture. The main crops are wheat, barley, oilseed, cotton, sugar and fruit.
ServicesThe services sector is the most important and fastest-growing sector of the Australian economy. In 2004/2005, the services sector was worth A$595,446 million, or 65.3% of Australia's GDP, and employed 6.99 million people, or 74% of all employment. The industries with the highest value of output in the service sector are real estate and business services, finance and insurance, accounting for 10.3% and 8% of the total value of output in the service sector respectively.In the five-year period from 1997-1998 to 2002-2003, the service sector grew by 22% in real terms, with real estate and business services growing at the fastest rate of 31% in real terms compared with the five years before, and the average annual growth rate was 6%. This was followed by communications services, which grew by 29% in real terms, with an average annual growth rate of 6%. The slowest-growing sector was education, which grew by 9 percent in real terms.
Foreign tradeAustralia is highly dependent on international trade.Australia's foreign trade totaled A$350.15 billion in the 2004/2005 fiscal year, or about 42 percent of GDP, and grew by 12.7 percent year-on-year. The trade deficit was A$25.5 billion, a year-on-year decrease of A$1.4 billion. Of this, exports amounted to A$162.308 billion and imports to A$187.842 billion. Merchandise exports accounted for about 76% of total exports, and service trade exports accounted for about 24%. Australia has trade relations with more than 130 countries and territories. in 2004/2005, Australia's major trading partners were, in order of importance, Japan, China, the United States of America, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Germany, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Natural resourcesAustralia is rich in mineral resources, oil and gas, with at least 70 mineral resources. Among them, the proven economic reserves of lead, nickel, silver, tantalum, uranium and zinc rank first in the world. Australia is the world's largest producer of bauxite, alumina, diamonds, lead and tantalum, and the production of gold, iron ore, coal, lithium, manganese ore, nickel, silver, uranium and zinc also ranks among the world's top. At the same time, Australia is also the world's largest exporter of bituminous coal, bauxite, lead, diamonds, zinc and concentrates, the second largest exporter of alumina, iron ore and uranium, and the third largest exporter of aluminum and gold. Proven mineral reserves with economic exploitation value: about 3.1 billion tons of bauxite, 15.3 billion tons of iron ore, 511 billion tons of bituminous coal, 411 billion tons of lignite, 17.2 million tons of lead, 9 million tons of nickel, 40,600 tons of silver, 18,000 tons of tantalum, 34 million tons of zinc, 610,000 tons of uranium, 4,404 tons of gold. Australia has reserves of 240 billion liters of crude oil, 1,360 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 174 billion liters of liquefied petroleum gas. Forests cover 20% of the national territory, with natural forests covering an area of about 155 million hectares (two thirds of which are eucalyptus) and timber forests covering 1.22 million hectares. Australia is rich in fishery resources, the fishing area is 16% more than the national territory, is the world's third largest fishing area, there are more than 3,000 kinds of saltwater and freshwater fish and more than 3,000 kinds of crustaceans and mollusks aquatic products, of which about 600 kinds have been commercially fished. Australia's most important aquatic products are shrimp, lobster, abalone, tuna, scallops, oysters, oysters and so on.
Australia's endemic animals - tree bears (koalas) Tourism Tourism is one of Australia's fastest-growing industries. 2002/2003, the tourism industry was valued at A$32 billion, accounting for 4.2% of GDP. Over the past 10 years, the number of overseas visitors to Australia has been on the rise, but still only accounts for about a quarter of the value of Australia's tourism industry, and domestic tourists still dominate the tourism industry. 2003, Australia received 4,745,900 overseas tourists, with an income of A$16.7 billion, accounting for about 11% of Australia's export earnings. Australia is rich in tourism resources, and famous tourist cities and attractions include Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, the Great Barrier Reef, the Gold Coast and Darwin.
Famous specialtiesAustralia's specialties include Opal (Australia's specialty gemstone), sheepskin, cowhide, sheepskin oil, wine (red and white), animal toys, Aboriginal artwork, art paintings, and so on. Major international credit cards are generally accepted in Australian stores. Australia's top ten companies: 1 TELSTRA Telstra Centre , 242 Exhibition Street , MELBOURNE , 3000 Telecommunications 2 NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK Level 24 , 500 Bourke Street , MELBOURNE , 3000 Banks 3 RIO TINTO LIMITED 33rd Floor , 55 Collins Street , MELBOURNE , 3000 Mining and metal production of copper, gold, iron, coal and aluminum 4 BHP BILLITON LIMITED Level 45 , BHP Tower - Bourke Place , 600 Bourke Street , MELBOURNE , 3000 Mining, oil and gas extraction; production, processing and refining 5 COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA. Level 2 , 48 Martin Place , SYDNEY , 1155 Banks 6 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED Level 6 , 100 Queen Street , MELBOURNE , 3000 Banks, Financial Investments, Life Insurance 7 WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION Level 25 , 60 Martin Place , SYDNEY, NSW 2000 Banking, Financial and Related Services 8 AMP LIMITED Level 24, AMP Building , 33 Alfred Street , SYDNEY , 2000 Life insurance, superannuation pensions and other financial services 9 WOODSIDE PETROLEUMLIMITED No 1 Adelaide Terrace , PERTH . AUSTRALIA, 6000 Oil and gas extraction, production, transportation, marketing; North West Shelf oil and gas projects 10 ALUMINA LIMITED Level 16 , IBM Centre , 60 City Road , SOUTHBANK , VIC. 3006 Nickel, gold and other mining extraction, processing, marketing, investment; fertilizer production and distribution Ranked among the top global Are there any Australian companies in the business:No.