PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australian economy reached over A$1.8-trillion in 2017/18, reflecting a 2.8% increase, new data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said.

“Australia has now recorded its twenty-seventh consecutive year of economic growth and is performing above the ten-year average growth of 2.6%,” said ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman.

He noted that in 2017/18 the largest industries in the Australian economy were financial and insurance services, mining, construction and health care and social assistance, representing over 30% of the economy.

The ABS on Friday reported that the mining industry contributed 8.8% of gross value added in 2017/18 compared to 4.7% in 1994/95, an increase of 4.1 percentage points.

Mining also recorded a growth of 2.9% in 2017/18 driven by oil and gas extraction. The growth in oil and gas extraction was due to large projects entering the production phase during the year.

The ABS noted that in 2017/18, the value of output of these two commodities was almost A$130-billion. Gas output has recently begun to accelerate on the back of some large liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants moving into production.

Queensland Resources Council (QRC) CEO Ian Macfarlane said the official figures back up what Queensland communities already know; that the mining industry is the lifeblood of the economy.

“Mining is what makes our state great. And it’s what makes Australia a major global economy,” Macfarlane said.

“Queensland would be an unimaginably different place without the huge scale of mining investment over the last 25 years. In the space of a generation, the resources industry has almost doubled its value to Australia.



“The ABS says the investment boom from the mining sector is of a scale never seen before. We know that’s the case too through the record values delivered to the Queensland budget bottom line and the widespread investment in towns and communities across our state.”



In 1994/95, Australian coal production was worth A$8.8-billion, compared with the A$65.6-billion in June this year, while gas production was worth A$2.6-billion in 1994/95 compared with A$46.5-billion in 2018.



“The good news is, the resources industry is still creating jobs for people now, and for decades to come,” Macfarlane said.

“In the past twelve months the Queensland resources industry has added 10 000 new jobs, or a new job every 40 minutes. And resources account for 80% of Queensland’s exports.

“The latest ABS study points to the fact that the increase in mining investment in recent years will lead to higher levels of mining production. That is good news for every town and community that relies on mining,” he added.