A resilient economy that outperformed the nation
AGA’s economy has shown resilience to several shocks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several factors explain its strong performance over this period:
- Population growth: Population growth remained strong despite the decline in international migration. Over the period 2019-2021, AGA’s population increased by 2.5% p.a., well above the national average of 0.7% p.a. This result was due to strong growth in babies and domestic in-migration.
- Local consumption: Local consumption was more resilient than the metropolitan average due to relatively higher population growth and a reduction of escape spending in AGA’s councils due to a large increase in working from home. This supported employment growth in many essential population services such as Health and Education.
- Transport and logistics investment: Investment by the transport and logistics industry continued throughout this period with businesses taking advantage of lower industrial land prices, availability of large lots and transport infrastructure. The AGA’s transport and logistics sector jobs (transport, postal, warehousing and wholesale trade) grew by 2.3% p.a. from 2019 to 2021 which was a strong result given the fall in air transport jobs due to travel restrictions.
- Construction: Construction activity expanded through 2019-2021 due to strong demand for non-residential and residential buildings. The latter was partly driven by Australia’s homebuilder program.
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