Australia

A service economy, backed by a solid industrial base

A developed, high-income economy, Australia earns a considerable share of its external wealth from exporting raw materials — iron ore, coal, liquefied natural gas, gold and, to a lesser extent, uranium — mainly to Asia and above all to China. The service sector (finance, international education, tourism) dominates employment and domestic value added. The country enjoyed nearly three decades of uninterrupted growth between the early 1990s and the Covid-19 pandemic, an exceptional performance among developed economies, driven in particular by Chinese demand for raw materials.