In NAB’s Australia-Asia Business Engagement Index for the second quarter of 2014, NAB found two-way trade in goods and services totalled $647 billion in 2013, or around 42 per cent of GDP.
“The index shows that Australia’s engagement with Asia is dominated by product imports and, not surprisingly, our engagement is clearly strongest with China across all sizes of business,” NAB chief economist Alan Oster said.
“Outside of China, engagement is typically higher for the ASX 300 compared to SMEs for all countries except Taiwan and Hong Kong. The ASX 300 has a particularly strong level of engagement in relation to services imports and offshore products to Singapore,” he said.
“There are sound reasons why Australian business has a strong level of engagement in relation to imports from Asia, but there are clear opportunities for Australian firms to broaden this relationship,” Mr Oster said.
With the currency expected to ease, export opportunities are also likely to rise, he said.
“The challenge for Australia is to rebalance the economy with new sources of growth to supplement our traditional strengths in minerals and energy,” Mr Oster said.
