This article briefly examines recent trends in foreign direct investment in Australia, both in the context of the longer-term perspective and relative to the experience of other countries. It also discusses the role of foreign direct investment within Australia’s overall investment...

This article examines the implementation of the Variable Deposit Requirement (VDR) capital control scheme in Australia in the 1970s. It notes that while capital controls can play a role in certain circumstances, they should not be used as a substitute for addressing underlying policy needs or...

Financial flows to East Asia have changed markedly in size and composition over the last decade. Foreign direct investment now dominates capital inflows with new foreign bank lending and portfolio investment remaining subdued. Foreign direct investment to China has grown rapidly since the early...

This article discusses the progress towards European Economic and Monetary Union, which begins in January 1999. Issues covered include: the operation of monetary and fiscal policy under the union; the relative size and significance of the euro area; financial market implications; and the...

This article analyses the factors behind the fall in the net income deficit. The decline in the net income deficit is a function both of a significant slowing in the rate of growth of Australia’s net foreign liabilities and a reduction in the average yield on net foreign liabilities. As a...

Australia's strong economic performance in recent years has reflected several key influences in the supply side of the economy — including strong growth in the labour force, declining structural unemployment, and rapid growth in productivity. Demographic projections point to Australia's...

This article briefly illustrates some key aspects of Australia’s economic development over the century since Federation. The time between 1901 and 2000 was generally a period of increasing prosperity; reinforced in recent times by strong economic gains in the second half of the 1990s.

SARS has severely disrupted the economies of some of Australia's major trading partners in the region and is expected to reduce GDP growth in East Asia by around ½ to 1 percentage point in 2003. This has occurred in an environment of an already subdued global economy. SARS has caused a large...

This article examines developments in Australia’s electricity supply industry over the past decade. The article outlines the impetus for reforms, their impact on the industry and emerging trends.

Living standards increased markedly during the 20th century. Moreover, recent studies have shown that over about the last thirty years, the majority of the world’s poor have achieved income growth faster than in developed countries for the first time in two centuries. But because income...