With a population of more than 21 million, Australia is a stable, culturally diverse and democratic society. Additionally, it has one of the strongest economies of the world. It is indicative that since 1991 the national real economy has grown by an average of 3.3% a year and unemployment has fallen below 5% in 2008, a figure that is the lowest since the 1970s. The main reasons behind this economic escalation were low inflation, growing trade ties with China and other Asian countries, an internal market boom and strong emphasis on socio-economical reforms. Australia was in 2009 the 13th largest national economy by nominal GDP the 21st largest importer and the 23rd largest exporter.

Trade plays an important role in the economic status quo of Australia. It is indicative that Australia’s two-way trade in goods and services was valued at $443.6 billion in 2006–07, a figure that represents about 1% of the total world trade. In order to further reinforce trade the Australian governmental institutions are trying to active participation in the institutions of global governance, including the United Nations and the WTO; to enhance Australia’s alliance with the United States and with the states and institutions of the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, in the last decades the trade of Australia shifted away from Europe to North America, Japan and other East Asian markets. Japan is Australia’s largest export market, followed by China, the United States, Republic of Korea and New Zealand.

Additionally, Australia signed free trade agreements with several of its most important trade partners. The Australia-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) was entered into force on the 1st January 2005. Australia also has FTAs with New Zealand-ASEAN, Singapore, Thailand, and Chile, and is pursuing other FTAs, including with China, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea. Finally, China plays an increasingly important role as a trade partner of Australia. There is a substantial export to China of iron ore, wool, and other raw materials and in 2009, offers were made by state-owned Chinese companies to invest 22 billion dollars in Australia's resource extraction industry.

Another important economical facet of Australia is that the country is a major regional financial centre and a vital part of the global financial system. The Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange merged in 2006 and formed the world’s 8th largest listed exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). In 30 June 2007, the ASX had 2,090 listed companies with a domestic market capitalization of $1.63 trillion. Furthermore, ASX has strong links with the major stock markets of Asia and operates in a rather privileged time zone which spans the closure of the markets in the United States and the opening of markets in Europe. The important place that the Australian stock market has is also highlighted by the fact that it was the ninth largest in the world in total market capitalization terms and the second largest in the Asia–Pacific region, according to the recent Global Stock Market Review by Standard and Poor’s.  
 
Since 1970s Australia has undergone through several and continuous structural and policy reforms. As a result, nowadays, the country has a stable institutional and regulatory structure. Some of these reforms include the progressively dismantle or cut of several former protectionist tariffs, the introduction of domestic competition laws, the deregulation of the national financial market, the decentralization of Australian labor market and the stabilization of the national macroeconomic policies. Additionally, Australia lowered barriers to trade and investment something that created an extensive competition across the entire spectrum of the national economy, including key areas such as the financial, air transport and telecommunications sectors.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2006 economic summary, the living standards of the Australians have steadily improved since the start of the 1990s. The aforementioned fact created a robust and active national market that helped the economy of the country.

The last two decades Australia had a fairly good economic performance and also performed significant structural socio-economical changes that created an open, stable and innovative economic environment.  The Australian Government has repeatedly shown commitment to maintain the strong economic growth and to further boost the national economy.