Australia becomes world’s 12th economy ahead of Spain, Korea and Mexico
Australia has become the world's 12th biggest economy as it continues to out-grow recession-ravaged parts of Europe. New figures from the IMF confirmed Australia had replaced Spain as the 12th biggest economy as measured by GDP at market exchange rates.
Australia’s Treasurer Wayne Swan said that since the Labour government had come to power in 2007 it had climbed three places. Over that period it had surpassed South Korea, Mexico and now Spain where the economy has shrunk by almost 5% over the past five years. However Mr Swan said the fall of Spain, and the rise of Australia, were closely tied to the economic policies pursued in both countries.
“While Spain has made a number of tough decisions over a number of years to try to put its economy back on track, it is currently enduring the economic and human impacts of a deep recession, including unemployment rates of around 25%,” he said.
“Through targeted measures to support our economy in the face of the worst global recession in 80 years, and keep the doors of Australian businesses open, Australia was able to avoid the destruction of capacity in our economy that comes with a recession, in particular the human cost of high and long-term unemployment.”
Despite the Treasurer's upbeat assessment of the economy, there are signs that Australia is struggling as the steam comes out of the mining boom.
Job ads in Australia’s main cities showed a further fall while employment figures expected for Thursday are tipped to show the unemployment rate increasing from its current level of 5.1%.
But Mr Swan said Australia remained in a strong economic position.
“We have the enviable combination of solid growth, low unemployment, contained inflation, sound public finances and a large investment pipeline that is delivering greater economic capacity and export volumes,” he said.
“Clearly there are challenges in parts of the economy, including the high Australian dollar and the continuing impact of global headwinds; however this historic milestone in Australia's economic growth story is something all Australians can be proud of”.
Suggested Stories
-
May 24th 2013
British Overseas Territories tax havens hold £ 4 trillion, claims Oxfam
-
May 24th 2013
As the US before IMF lines up behind Argentina in the litigation with hedge funds
-
May 23rd 2013
Energy - Balancing the Bonanza: Interview with Mark Thoma
-
May 23rd 2013
Global economy to pick up in second half forecasts UN agency
17 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
sadly we are far to busy giving our money away.
Makes you think doesn't it.... one hundred years ago level pegging with argentina.... similar history... similar economies.
So what made the difference ?
1/ a parliamentary democracy?
2/ mainly british stock...even today... with a positive work ethic?
3/a free market economy?
4/ all of the above??
But they are not immune from the global slowdown, their economic 'miracle' is heavily influenced by mining and selling it all to the Chinese and during this time they have still been running a budget deficit. With the slowdown affecting even the Chinese now, the mining companies have started to make redundancies. They level of government debt is manageable though
Party last until bankers call their door with a huge bill plus interest and a long list of cuts.
So time to reduce debt ASAP until is too late...
@7 that is the whole point of he article. It's already happened.
@3 the reasons for Australia's success? I don't think it is a racial issue but I do think that it is the rule of law and a respect for parliamentary democracy. Australia has many nationalities and its Italian and Greek citizens are as hardworking as its Anglos, not to mention the Asians. Argentina seems to have suffered from the traditions of bad government (particularly dictatorships) and rule of law that has beset all Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations until relatively recently - can anyone name one which has not besides Gibraltar.
I also think the common law system with its emphasis on judicial independence creates stability. A true gift from the British to Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada etc.
give it time, a century from now, is anybodies guess.
give it time.
after all
rome was not built in a day,,
still,
it burnt down very quickly
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!