| Australia Economy | | | | due to the explosion of the domestic financial sector. |
| Australia has a huge foreign and private sector | | | | High interest rates would cause low income earners to |
| department. Australia’s expanding resource sector | | | | suffer the most. |
| might be one of the country’s weak points. The | | | | The largest economic sector in Australia is the |
| manufacturing sector has been shrinking in a rapid | | | | services sector, which accounts for more than 70 |
| pace. The associate professor of Economics at the | | | | percent of Gross Domestic Product, according to the |
| University of New South Wales, Peter Kriesler, thinks | | | | 2007 data. Australia has rich natural resources. Since |
| that the country depends more and more on the key | | | | the European settlement, Australia has been cultivating |
| resource exports. Australia is reliant on what is | | | | grain crops. It is a big exporter of agricultural products |
| happening in countries like India and China. | | | | like wheat, wool, gold, iron, coal and natural gas, |
| | | | sugarcane, tobacco, apples, potatoes, tomatoes, |
| The International Monetary Fund considers that | | | | pineapples, bananas and mangoes. The country |
| Australia’s current deficit will be present up to at | | | | exports sugar to the United States, Malaysia, |
| least 2012. Like it has happened in the rest of the | | | | Singapore, Canada, China and Japan. Agriculture and |
| world, the inflation level is also growing in Australia. In | | | | services related to agriculture employ 400,000 people. |
| 2007 it was at 4.2%. It will probably continue to be | | | | 3 per cent of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product |
| above the target of 2 or 3 per cent which had been | | | | comes from agriculture. |
| previously set by the Bank of Australia. | | | | Australian farmers are often affected by drought |
| Australia’s economic growth is higher than other | | | | because of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The |
| countries in the West and this growth is based mostly | | | | country has very good water resource management, |
| on the mining sector. Attempts to reduce inflation are | | | | maintaining productivity in agriculture. Recently, |
| unequally directed at wage earners and the poor, as | | | | scientists at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional |
| asset owners can take profit from the interest | | | | Genomics have been researching drought tolerant |
| payments on their savings which are higher. Low | | | | crops. |
| income earners have more debt than they had before | | | | Further reading on EconomyWatch. |