Assignment on Economics (PDF)

Running head: ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT
Economics Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Economic growth of a country is a crucial component for the overall development and
welfare of the country as a whole and of its residents in particular. Over the years, the global
economy has experienced huge dynamics and modifications in its growth pattern, much of
which can be attributed to the diversities in the nature and type of growth of the different
countries under its domain (Cohn 2016). While some of the countries developed significantly
and emerged as globally dominating economies with impressive economic performances,
over the years, some other experienced negative growth patterns and decline in the welfare
over time, owing to exogenous as well as endogenous factors.
In this context, one of the primary economies, which have over the years dominated
the global scenario and considerably influenced the global economic framework is that of the
economy of Australia. The country, known for its immense stability, has prospered over the
last few decades and has one of the largest and most influential mixed economies in the
world, showing impressive dynamics in almost all the economic parameters of growth and
welfare of the residents (Bishop et al. 2016). Much of the economic prosperity of the country
comes from the steady and flourishing industrial sectors, high volumes of trade and
commerce and technological and infrastructural developments, which together contribute in
the comparatively higher than global average standard of living of the major share of the
population of the country.
Australia, has however, faced its share of fluctuations and dynamics in the path of
growth of its economy and not all the parameters show smooth progress at all the times. In
the last few years especially, the economy of Australia has faced considerable fluctuations,
both positive as well as negative, in its different economic indicators of growth, owing to
internal as well as external factors. Keeping this into consideration, the concerned essay tries

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to analyse and discuss the growth trends in the GDP and the overall economy of Australia,
exhibited over the last five years.
Australia: Economic Overview
As discussed above, the economy of Australia is one of the largest mixed economies
as well as the highly developed countries in the international framework, with gradual and
steady development over the decades. The country ranks second in terms of the wealth of the
adult population, just after that of Switzerland and also ranks fourteenth in terms of Nominal
GDP across the global scenario. The economy of the Australia also has the record of the
longest uninterrupted growth spanning 26 years, which indicates towards the presence of a
steady economy in the country (Rees, Smith and Hall 2016). The country has also built robust
trade relationships with all the other major economies of the globe and is currently the 23rd
largest exporter and 20th largest importer in the world. Dominated by an increasing service
sector, the economy of Australia has been generating immense economic prosperity and
employment scopes across the years, which in turn has attracted huge numbers of immigrant
from all parts of the world, many of whom come down to the country in search of greater
economic scopes and higher standard of living (Lowe 2012).
The Australian economy has however experienced considerable fluctuations and
dynamics in the last five years, which can be observed by studying the performance of the
country in terms of the major economic indicators like the growth of the GDP, inflation,
unemployment, consumption, investment, trade and others, which is discussed in the
following sections.
GDP and its dynamics in Australia in the last five years
One of the primary indicators of the economic growth and overall economic health
and wellbeing of any country, at a point of time, is the Gross Domestic Product of the country

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at that concerned point of time. The Gross Domestic Product measures the value of the final
commodities as well as services which are produced within the concerned country’s
geographical boundary within a particular period of time, which is usually an economic year
and is thus an indicator of the dynamics of the total productivity and income of the nation,
which in turn gives a broad overview of the economic welfare of the residents of the
concerned country. Keeping this into consideration, the GDP of Australia, in the last five
years, can be seen to be as follows:
Figure 1: Australian GDP in the last five years
(Source: Tradingeconomics.com 2018)
As can be seen from the above figure, the GDP of Australia, which used to be nearly
1538.19 billion USD in 2012, increased to 1567.18 billion USD in 2013, but however started
declining post 2013 till 2016, hitting as low as 1204 billion USD in the concerned year. This
decline seems to be short-term as in 2017, the GDP of the country can be seen to increase to
some extent (to 1379.55 billion USD) (Dyster and Meredith 2012).
These fluctuations of the Gross Domestic Product of the country can be understood
even more robustly by studying the growth rates of the concerned indicator within the
concerned period of time. In general, high fluctuations, both positive as well as negative in