latest economic data from imf Australia's nominal gdp down a lot (2014, unemployment)

[grmike]

nominal gdp is the main indicator used to assess economic size.

2008
nominal gdp $1.01 trillion
2009
nominal gdp $755 billion
2010
nominal gdp $744 billion

compare this to some of the Eurozone countries.

Greece went from being 35 % the size of Australia's to almost half.

2008 $357 billion
2009 $325 billion

Spain went from being 38 % larger to twice as big as compared to Australia.

according to the data the UK is falling behind fast as well.

UK

2008 $2.7 trillion
2009 $2 trillion

compare this to Italy

2008 2.3 trillion
2009 $2 trillion

when you consider that Italy exports about 21 % more than the UK it makes you question if Italy is more powerful than Britain.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/...NGDPD&grp=0&a=

[grmike]

It seems in the last quarter something pushed Australia's nominal gdp up (could have been the exchange rates or gdp growth in the last quarter).
it appears as though the recession didn't hit Australia's gdp as much as people thought it would middle of last year.

920 billion is the 2009 estimate at the close of the year. it isn't expected to reach a trillion again until 2011 but until that time it's forecasted to just edge ahead of Mexico and South Korea.

Nominal GDP is the most commonly cited indicator of economic power as it reflects the ability of nation to purchase at international prices. PPP is more suited to gauging the living standards of the local population.

[danielsa1775]

It has to be currency movements affecting it, I would assume "international prices" are measured in $US. The AUD was high in 2008, took a massive hit in late 2008/2009 and is now climbing back up again!

Anyway if the economy did shrink by 1/3rd we certainly did not experience any major problems with unemployment, housing crashes, banks going broke etc.