ASR welcomes the news today that Australian services trade continues to thrive, with the highest levels of growth achieved for six years.
The latest services trade research released today by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) indicates that in 2013 Australia experienced its strongest services trade growth since 2007, led by the business and travel sectors.
Overall services trade increased 9.1 per cent year-on-year to $124.8 billion in 2013, according to ‘Trade in Services, Australia 2013’ released today by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
ASR’s CEO Ian Birks commented, “Services trade will be the lifeblood of Australia’s participation in the fast developing Asian economies and it is also critical to achieving the highest levels of prosperity and productivity in our domestic economy. Given the strong and positive focus on services trade opportunities under Minister Robb we believe that the outlook for continued strong growth is good”.
Total trade in services in 2013 accounted for 19.3 per cent of Australia’s total trade in goods and services (up from 18.3 per cent in 2012).
The services sector is a critical part of the Australian economy, representing about 71 per cent of Australia’s economy and employing more than four out of five Australians.
In 2013, services exports rose 7.6 per cent to $55.1 billion. Imports rose 10.4 per cent to $69.7 billion. Export and import volumes were up 5.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively.
Exports of business services rose 18.9 per cent to $14.9 billion of which the biggest rises occurred in financial services (up 51.7 per cent to $2.5 billion) and professional and management consulting services (up 18.9 per cent to $4.6 billion). Other personal travel–mainly expenditure in Australia by visitors on holiday or and visiting friends and relatives – rose 8.0 per cent to $13.1 billion.
Other highlights from the publication include:
• Australia’s top three services export markets were China (up 9.4 per cent to $6.9 billion), the United States (up 13.4 per cent to $6.0 billion) and the United Kingdom (up 4.5 per cent to $4.0 billion)
• Services trade with APEC economies accounted for 57.4 per cent of total services trade.
• Australia’s top three services import sources were the United States (up 13.5 per cent to $12.4 billion), the United Kingdom (up 13.8 per cent to $5.8 billion) and Singapore (up 15.1 per cent to $4.9 billion)
• Australia’s largest services import, Other personal travel (excluding education-related), rose 10.2 per cent to $24.7 billion after falling 0.5 per cent in 2012
• the number of short-term international visitor arrivals in Australia rose 5.8 per cent to 6.4 million in 2013 – indicating strong tourism export growth.