Australia

Trade

As of 2016, Australias imports slightly decreased from US$ 201.1 million in 2015 to US$ 189.4 million. This can be attributed mostly to machineries and electronics sector (25.0 percent), transportation sector (15.6 percent), miscellaneous (9.5 percent), chemicals (9.3 percent), fuels (9.2 percent), stone and glass (5.2 percent), food products (4.6 percent), textiles and clothing (4.8 percent), and plastic or rubber (4.3 percent), among others. Most of the countrys imports were consumer goods (45.7 percent) and capital goods (31.9 percent). Intermediate and raw materials only accounted for 15.4 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively. The country imported a total of 4,373 products from 217 partner economies, including China (31.6 percent), as the largest partner, Japan (13.9 percent), Republic of Korea (6.7 percent), USA (4.6 percent), and India (4.2 percent).

Exports, on the other hand, slightly increased from US$ 187.8 million in 2015 to US$ 189.6 million, equivalent to a total of 4,182 products marketed to 211 destinations. About half of the total exports were fuels (25.6 percent) and minerals (25.4 percent); the rest include stone and glass (8.1 percent), animal (6.6 percent), miscellaneous (5.8 percent), vegetable (5.7 percent), chemicals (5.1 percent), metals (4.6 percent), machineries and electronics (4.0 percent), food products (2.7 percent), transportation (2.1 percent), and textiles and clothing (2.1 percent), among others. Major exports destinations include China (23.4 percent), USA (11.5 percent), Japan (7.7 percent), Thailand (5.78 percent), and Germany (5.3 percent). Australias service imports were valued at US$ 56.9 billion (BoP, at current US$) n 2016, while service exports were valued at US$ 53.2 billion (BoP, at current US$).

Investment

Australias FDI flows have been generally strong since 2011, with the exception of 2015, where FDI inflow was only valued at US$ 20.5 billion. This, however, recovered in 2016 to US$ 47.8 billion, although slightly declined to US$ 46.4 billion (3 percent) in 2017. FDI stock, on the other hand, stood at US$ 662.3 billion (15 percent increase), continuous increase.

United States (29.8 percent) topped as the main investor I in the country, as of 2016. Japan (13.9 percent), UK (10.4 percent), Netherlands (7.7 percent), China (6.4 percent), Singapore (4.8 percent), Canada (4.4 percent), Bermuda (3.5 percent), Virgin Islands (3.3 percent), Germany (3.0 percent), and Hong Kong (1.8 percent) complete the list of foreign investors.

The most invested sectors in the country, as of 2016, include mining (45.6 percent), manufacturing sector (14.0 percent), retail sales and wholesale (9.7 percent), financial and insurance activities (8.3 percent), real estate activities (7.7 percent), information and communications (4.1 percent), construction (3.1 percent), transportation and storage (2.2 percent), and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (2.1 percent).

References:

https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/en/AUS (Accessed on 8 November 2018)

https://en.portal.santandertrade.com/establish-overseas/australia/foreign-investment (Accessed on 8 November 2018)