Economy of Sydney

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The economy of Sydney is notable for its importance in the areas of trading, finance and distribution in Australia.

As of September 2003, the unemployment rate in Sydney was 5.3%.[1] As of March 2008, Sydney has the highest median house price of any Australian capital city at $550890.[2] According to The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide cost of living survey, Sydney is the sixteenth most expensive city in the world.

According to a report published by the OECD in November 2005, Australia has the most overvalued houses in the Western world, with prices 52 percent higher than that justified by rental values. [3]

The largest sectors of Sydney's economy with the largest percentage of employed persons include property and business services, retail, manufacturing and health and community services.[4] Since the 1980s, jobs have moved from manufacturing to the services and information sectors.

Having gained ascendancy over Melbourne during the late 20th century, Sydney is now established as the corporate and financial capital of Australia, and is also a very important financial centre in the Asia-Pacific.[5] Sydney has the largest economy in Australia, and there is dispute over the second largest economy between western Sydney and Australia's second biggest city, Melbourne. Sydney is home to the headquarters of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Of the 54 authorised deposit-taking banks with operations in Australia, 44 are based in Sydney. This includes nine of the 11 foreign subsidiary banks in Australia and all of the 29 local branches of foreign banks. Major authorised foreign banks in Sydney include Citigroup, UBS Australia, Mizuho Corporate Bank, HSBC Bank Australia and Deutsche Bank. Other global banks have established highly successful back office operations in Sydney. Of the top 20 global banks, 17 have operations in Sydney, NSW state government July 2006. This translates as every single foreign bank has its headquarters in Sydney, excluding one and almost 50% of all Australian owned banks are headquartered in Sydney. Sydney also serves as the regional headquarters for numerous multinational corporations. 20th Century Fox has large Sydney studios. Sydney's CBD is the largest in Australia and also has plenty of satellite cities. One notable Satellite city is Parramatta, which is bigger than some state capital cities, making it Australia's sixth largest city, succeeding Adelaide.

Sydney city extends over the harbour bridge, forming North Sydney, a continuation of the CBD; however is considered its own city, adding to the numerous satellite cities in Sydney. North Sydney has a large economy; however it tends to have a high vacancy rate. Just a few kilometres north of North Sydney, is Sydney's third largest satellite city, Chatswood. Chatswood's main economy is retail and is home to many highrise buildings, with its own recogniseablee skyline.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2005. Sydney Statistical Division.
  2. ^ Australian Property Monitors. Official March 2008 Quarter Housing Data, Media Announcement
  3. ^ Boilling, M. February 2 2006. City among most costly, Herald Sun
  4. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2002. Sydney - Basic Community Profile and Snapshot - 2001 Census�UNIQ300dbde1712a4c97-HTMLCommentStrip1e910d095d4787b00000004
  5. ^ Daly, M. T. and Pritchard, B. 2000. Sydney:Australia's financial and commercial capital. In J. Connell (Ed.). Sydney the emergence of a global city. pp 76-95. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-550748-7, pp 167-188
v • d • e
Sydney