1. SNAPSHOT OF THE AUSTRALIA ECONOMY AND THE MAJOR 5 MEMBERS OF ASEAN ECONOMICS
Item Australia Indonesia Philippine Thailand Malaysia Singapore
Population(2006) 20,434,176 245,452,739 89,468,677 64,631,595 24,385,858 4,492,150
Population growth rate (2006) 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, min ...