venues: $90.73 billion
expenditures: $89.04 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(FY98/99 est.)

Industries: mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food
processing, chemicals, steel

Industrial production growth rate: 1.2% (1995)

Electricity--production: 166.683 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 91.14%
hydro: 8.84%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0.02% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 166.683 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits; cattle,
sheep, poultry

Exports: $56 billion (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Exports--commodities: coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore,
wheat, machinery and transport equipment

Exports--partners: Japan 20%, ASEAN 16%, EU 10%, South Korea 9%,
US 9%, NZ 8%, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China (1997)

Imports: $61 billion (f.o.b., 1998 est.)

Imports--commodities: machinery and transport equipment, computers
and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude
oil and petroleum products

Imports--partners: EU 25%, US 23%, Japan 13%, China, NZ (1997)

Debt--external: $156 billion (June 1997)

Economic aid--donor: ODA, $1.43 billion (FY97/98)

Currency: 1 Australian dollar ($A) = 100 cents

Exchange rates: Australian dollars ($A) per US$1--1.56 (February
1999), 1.5888 (1998), 1.3439 (1997), 1.2773 (1996), 1.3486 (1995),
1.3668 (1994)

Fiscal year: 1 July--30 June

Communications

Telephones: 8.7 million (1987 est.)

Telephone system: excellent domestic and international service
domestic: domestic satellite system
international: submarine cables to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea,
and Indonesia; satellite earth stations--10 Intelsat (4 Indian Ocean
and 6 Pacific Ocean), 2 Inmarsat (Indian and Pacific Ocean Regions)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1
(Australia's only shortwave station, Radio Australia, broadcasts to
the world in seven languages, using 23 frequencies) (1998)

Radios: NA

Television broadcast stations: 104 (64 of these stations are
government-owned and 40 are commercial) (1997)

Televisions: 9.2 million (1992 est.)

Transportation

Railways:
total: 38,563 km (2,914 km electrified)
broad gauge: 6,083 km 1.600-m gauge
standard gauge: 16,752 km 1.435-m gauge
narrow gauge: 15,728 km 1.067-m gauge
dual gauge: 172