12 Surprising Stats About Australia's Extraordinary Economy

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HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham is out this morning with a great presentation on Australia, the economy, and its links with Asia.

It’s a deep pool of data, statistics and information spread over 39 pages but here are 12 things Bloxham highlights throughout the report about the Australian economy which might surprise you:

• In the past six years, Australia’s economy has grown 16%. By comparison, the US has grown 6%, while the British economy has not grown at all and Europe’s is 2% smaller. China’s economy has grown by 65%.
• No other OECD economy has a larger export exposure to Asia than Australia and the largest part of this is to China.
• Around 73% of Australia’s exports go to Asia, and we expect this to rise to 80% by 2020.
• Three Asian economies alone – China, Japan and Korea – account for 54% of Australia’s exports.
• Much of what Australia exports are commodities, which account for 57% of total exports.
• Over the next six years the value of iron ore exports is expected to rise 54%, coal by 41% and LNG by 330%, as newly built capacity comes on line.
• Other goods and services account for 40% of Australia’s exports, which include agricultural products, manufactured goods, and tourism and education services.
• Chinese tourist visits to Australia have increased by 110% in the past four years.
• 28% of Australia’s population was born outside the country.
• Of the more than 5 million foreign-born individuals living in Australia, 2 million were born in Asia.
• Thanks to strong migration, Australia’s population growth has averaged 1.4% year on year over the past decade, compared to an average of +0.7% among the OECD economies.
• Australia’s financial ties are still mainly to Western markets, with 56% of foreign direct investment and 57% of overseas direct investment with the US and Europe, although links to Asia are growing.

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