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The economic challenges ahead

By Alan Austin - posted Tuesday, 26 November 2013

3. Economic growth

Gross domestic product (GDP) is expanding at an annual rate of 2.6%, currently the 5th best performance in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Australia is the only OECD country to have had continuous growth for 22 years.

4. Employment numbers

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) records the total workforce in September as 11,645,800, just below the all-time high of 11,658,300 in June. The increase since Labor took office in 2007 is 943,000.

5. Employment participation

Defined as the number of people employed or looking for work as a percentage of the total population, participation in September was 64.9%.

6. Unemployment

Australia's jobless has remained reasonably steady through the global crisis which has seen disastrous increases elsewhere. For the last 57 months the rate has ranged between 4.9% and 5.9%. September's level was 5.6%.

7. Interest rates

Australia's September rate was 2.5%, the lowest in living memory. This is down from 6.75% when Labor won government in 2007.

8. Inflation

The inflation rate was 2.2% in September, having stayed within the range 1.2% to 2.5% for the last seven quarters.

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About the Author

Alan Austin is an Australian freelance journalist currently based in Nîmes in the South of France. His special interests are overseas development, Indigenous affairs and the interface between the religious communities and secular government. As a freelance writer, Alan has worked for many media outlets over the years and been published in most Australian newspapers. He worked for eight years with ABC Radio and Television’s religious broadcasts unit and seven years with World Vision. His most recent part-time appointment was with the Uniting Church magazine Crosslight.