Quote:
Originally Posted by astroron
Could you tell me what Australia manufactures in any great volume to make any difference  |
Hi Ron,
I might be able to partly answer that.
Here are two sets of percentages I could find by searching, the first set for exports and
the second as percentages of Australian GDP for the period around 2011.
Exports (2011)
Minerals and fuels : 50.6%
Services : 16%
Manufacturing : 13.3%
Rural : 10.8%
Source -
http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/...ance-2012.html
Activity as contribution to Australian GDP (2010-11)
Mining : 7.23%
Manufacturing : 8.17%
Source -
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@....20Industry~240
Quote:
We have a very small manufacturing sector, and have had for a very long time, and it is only getting smaller IMHO.
If we invent,make anything of value, we sell the design and production to an over seas company then buy the product of them.
|
As you know, I am a big supporter of manufacturing in Australia but you are
right in that worryingly the manufacturing sector has been contacting over time.
As you rightly point out, many Australian companies have succumbed to
off-shoring.
Nevertheless, manufacturing still makes a considerable contribution to the Australian economy,
as the percentage of GDP figures reflect. As at this moment, indications I
have read are that the manufacturing and mining contributions to GDP are about the
same, around 7%.
However, the export figures are the most relevant for this thread as far as
their exposure to the weaknesses of other currencies.
As you will be aware, the Americans, British Swiss, Japanese and so on have been
"printing money" in recent periods, keeping their currencies artificially low.
As a result, the Australian Dollar has certainly defied gravity of late and is not
as strongly correlated to commodity prices as it once was. One recent result of this
levitation act is that it caught Treasury bureaucrats by surprise with tax revenues
lower than expected, contributing to this year's deficit.
Wildcard manufactures electronics here in Sydney and we're proud of the fact that
we are a net exporter.