The change in the Australian 2021 indicator of unemployment is the representation of cyclical unemployment since it lasted less than a year. While growing by 42.3% from 2019 to 2020, the unemployment rate decreased in the following year to 33.8% from 2020 to 2021 as seen in table 1 (University Name, 2022. The latter came close to a natural rate of unemployment:
Table 1: The Unemployment Rate in Australia
As seen from table 2, the inflation rate in 2021 in Australia showed an increasing trend, doubling the rate from two years ago:
Table 2: Inflation in Australia
The rising trend of consumer confidence and business confidence indicates that inflation is not demand-pull inflation. The growing demand is covered by abundant supply, as demonstrated in table 3:
Table 3: Business and Consumer Confidence
The inflation in Australia, however, could indicate that there is cost-push inflation since the costs of production rose from -0.4 in 2020 to 2.2 in 2021, demonstrating a 650% change (University Name, 2022). Meanwhile, the labor productivity index has been growing for three consecutive years, as demonstrated in table 4.
Table 4: Producer Costs and Labour Productivity Index
Lastly, exports and imports could also influence the inflation rate in Australia in 2021, demonstrated in table 5. As seen from the statistics, imports grew 8.12% from 2020 to 2021, while exports grew by 19.2% from 2020 to 2021 (University Name, 2022). This indicates a trade deficit, which made the domestic currency weaker.
Table 5: Exports and Imports in Australia
Reference
[University Name]. (2022). The Australian economy: Economic data 2019 – 2021. In Macroeconomics.