Australia Economy and the Major 5 Member of Asean Economic

1. SNAPSHOT OF THE AUSTRALIA ECONOMY AND THE MAJOR 5 MEMBERS OF ASEAN ECONOMICS

Item Australia Indonesia Philippine Thailand Malaysia Singapore

Populationпј?2006пј‰ 20,434,176 245,452,739 89,468,677 64,631,595 24,385,858 4,492,150

Population growth rate пј?2006пј‰ 0.8% 1.4% 1.8% 0.7% 1.8% 1.4%

Population density per sq mi: (2006) 7 351 777 327 192 18,645

Annual inflation rate(2006) 3.3 10.4 6.3 4.8 2.9 1

Unemployment rate(2006) 4.9 12.5 7.9 2.1 3.5 3.1

GDP growth rate(2006) 2.7 5.5 5.4 4.8 5.9 7.9

Exports as a % of GDP(2006) 15 27.7 40.4 58.8 100.2 205.3

Current account balance as a % of GDP(2006) -5.4 0.7 4.3 0.3 3.6 6.1

Saving rate as a % of GDP(2005) 20 27 19.8 23.5 17.1 23

Official interest rate(2006) 6.5 9.7 5.1 3.25-4.75 3.2 0.6

A representative commercial interest rate(6/7 months term deposit) 7.0

10.0 5.5 4.5 3.5 1.0

Urbanisation rate(2005) 88.2 48.1 62.7 32.3 67.3 100

Exchange rate ->$US(2007 Aug) 1.25 9358 46.73 34.67 3.49 1.52

The % change in the �local’ currency cost of the $US(2006) 1.4 -5.7 -7..0 -5.8 -3.5 -4.6

Principal 3 trading partners in order of important Japan, China, U.S. Japan, U.S., Singapore Japan, U.S., Netherlands U.S., Japan, China U.S., Singapore, Japan Malaysia, U.S., Hong Kong

Principal exports coal, gold, meat oil and gas, electrical appliances electronic equipment, machinery textiles and footwear, fishery products electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas machinery and equipment, mineral fuels

Principal imports machinery and transport equipment, computers machinery and equipment, chemicals raw materials, machinery and equipment capital goods, intermediate goods and raw materials electronics, machinery, petroleum products machinery and equipment, mineral fuels

Political system parliamentary democracy republic with a presidential system republic electoral democracy with monarchy federal constitutional elective monarchy republic

The political leader John Howard Jusuf Anwar Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Thaksin Abdullah Badawi Lee Hsien Loong

Principal religions(2004) Roman Catholic Islam, Roman Catholic Buddhist Muslim, Buddhist Buddhist

3 Social indicators

Murder rate 1.28 1.05 4.31 8.47 2.36 0.49

Infant mortality rate(2005) 4.6/1000 34.4/1000 22.8/1000 19.5/1000 17.2/1000 2.3/1000

Literacy rate(2003) 100 89 96 96 89 93

Comments on the contents of the table

As it is shown from the table, Australia and major 5 members of ASEAN have many elements in common. In terms of unemployment rate, inflation and population growth rate, there are only a slight difference within these countries. In terms of annual GDP, for example all this countries have a positive economic growth while Australia had the least GDP growth rate in 2006, and Singapore’s GDP was increased most rapidly in 2006. Moreover, in terms of their trading partners, nearly every country has the trading partnership with US, Japan and China. However, there are a lot of differences between these countries as well. In terms of current account, it is negative in Australia, when it is positive in other countries. Furthermore, the total amount of population, population density and exports rate etc. are quiet different.

Sources of data:

http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/default.asp

2. THE COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL PROFILE OF THE ASEAN-5 AND AUSRALIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS

2.1 Real GDP Growth

Figure 2.1 Real GDP growth rate

The graph shows that from 1961 the real GDP was keep growing up and the growth rate reached the peak in 1968, however it experienced a slight decrease from 1981 to 1983, and in 1990 as well. The real GDP of other two countries(Thailand and Indonesia) increased