Economy

The prosperous Australian economy is based on a Western-style market economy. The per-capita GDP of Australia is slightly lower than in the UK, Germany and France. Over the past few years, the Australian economy has stood fast in the face of an overall downturn in the global economy. Australia has a high-growth, low inflation economy, which is dominated by its services sector. 65 % of Australia's exports are accounted for by the agricultural and mining sectors. The Australian currency is the Australian dollar (AUD). Australia was the first country to implement a complete system of polymer (plastic) bank notes.