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The economic challenges ahead

By Alan Austin - posted Tuesday, 26 November 2013

14. Economic freedom

This year's Heritage Foundation survey ranks Australia's economic freedom first among the OECD nations and third in the world behind merchant city states Hong Kong and Singapore. Measuring freedom from government obstruction in starting and running businesses, Australia's score was 82.6.

15. Business profits

Gross operating profits for the June quarter were $73.98 billion, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Table 15, line 52, column AG). Profits have not been below $70 billion since March 2010.

16. Business investment

This has peaked at over 18% of GDP recently, the highest level in more than 50 years.

The ABS shows new capital investment (Table 1E) at $26.8 billion in June. It has been above $25 billion each quarter for the last six quarters. The highest during the Howard years was $11.2 billion.

17. Foreign exchange reserves

These are the assets held or controlled by the Reserve Bank, usually in gold or foreign currencies. The September level was A$52,971 million, up from $32,718 million in 2007.

18. Currency value

The Aussie dollar fluctuated between 89 and 93 US cents in the two months before the September election, between 57 and 62 British pence and between 67 and 72 Euro cents.

19. Balance of trade

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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.