The Australian Economy
Christopher Cuenca
Introduction to Business
10/8/2012

Introduction Australia is a nation in which not many of us take into consideration for any reason whatsoever. The only thing I recognized this nation is for having kangaroos. Even when it comes to tourism we think of traveling within the United States, or parts of Europe, or Japan. Well I say Australia should be a nation to consider looking at. There are economic reasons for which I state Australia is a country to take a further look into. There is a big attraction from foreign investments for the resources Australia has to offer. Australia has extensive reserves of coal, iron ore, copper, gold, natural gas, uranium, and renewable energy sources. All the monetary numbers in this report are in U.S. dollars.

The Overall Economy Australia has a market economy; therefore private ownership plays a big factor in this nation. The Australian economy grew for 17 consecutive years before the global financial crisis back in 2007. However the Reserve Bank of Australia cut down interest rates to historic lows which helped rebound the economy after just one quarter of negative growth. The GDP was about $1.6 trillion as of 2012. This number stands because of Australia’s strong exportation which will be explained further down in this report. The overall unemployment rate is about 5.1% which in my opinion does not consist of those people who have given up looking for employment. The number sounds really reasonable compared to the unemployment rate in the U.S. of 7.8 %. There is no population below the poverty line; therefore most Australians are at or above poverty standards. The labor force is made of 12.05 million, most coming from services, than industry, or agriculture. The service sector truly dominates in Australia with agriculture almost extinct and surely industry is shipped off to foreign nations just like in the U.S. The nation’s revenues add up to at least $473.2 billion, and the expenditures add up to $521.8 billion. The total taxes and other revenues received by the Australian government were 31.8% of the GDP. Most of these expenditures go to their Social Security and Welfare system.

Worries
At least every nation in this era has something to worry about. Australia’s financial situation looks pretty good. However, the inflation rate consists of a 3.4%. The budget deficit as it stands now is of -3.3% or $20.7 billion. Australia has an external debt of $1.376 trillion as of 2011.

The Exports
Large attraction from foreigners on their reserves of resources means Australia has the opportunity to trade. No wonder they're a top 20 exporter along with China, Germany, and the U.S. Australia doesn't only export natural resources; much of their exportation also includes energy and food. Major exportations consist of coal, iron core, gold, meat, wool, alumina, wheat, machinery and transport equipment. They are ranked #11 in exporting Natural Gas (24.7 billion cubic meters). Oil exports calculate to 312, 600 barrels/day plus they’re a top 40 oil exporter along with Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the U.S. Their exports bring in $272.1 billion.
Whom do these exportations go to? Well Australia has a very good connection with various countries. Their strongest export partner is China. China is a big importer of Australian goods. Before China, Japan used to be the strongest export partner of Australia, however they still remain second. South Korea and India follow. South Korea's Hyundai may need from the Australian transport equipment so that proves beneficial for both sides. Amounts of gold in India can be due to the Indians importing it from Australia. Overall Australians do very well in exporting their products to various nations.

The Imports
This surprising nation can't provide everything so they need to import much of what they lack. They are major importers of machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines,