WA Economic Profile for April 2017

Main updates this month

Labour market

• Western Australia’s employment rose by 1,600 to 1.34 million in March 2017.
• The unemployment rate was 6.5 per cent in March 2017, above the 6.1 per cent in the previous month and 5.5 per cent a year ago.

Commodity sales

• The value of Western Australia’s minerals and petroleum sales rose 1 per cent to $92.1 billion in 2016.
• In 2016, the value of iron ore sales rose 9 per cent to $53.9 billion and the volume of iron ore sales rose 3 per cent to 763 million tonnes.
• In 2016, the value of LNG sales fell 8 per cent to $10.7 billion and the volume of LNG sales rose 17 per cent to 23.8 million.
• In 2016, the value of gold sales rose 10 per cent to $10.6 billion and the volume of gold sales rose 1 per cent to 196 tonnes.

Exchange rate

• The monthly average Australian dollar exchange rate fell 0.6 per cent to US76.4 cents in March 2017.

Commodity prices

• In March 2017, the monthly average price of:
  • iron ore fell 1 per cent to US$88.0 a tonne
  • LNG was US$7.6 a million British thermal unit
  • crude oil fell 7 per cent to US$49.6 a barrel
  • gold fell 0.2 per cent to US$1,231 an ounce
• The Reserve Bank of Australia’s monthly index of rural commodity prices rose 0.3 per cent in March 2017.

 

The latest WA Economic Profile will be available on the Department of State Development’s website soon.