Economic GrowthEconomic growth involves an increase in the value of goods and services that an economy produces over a period of time caused by changes in the level of aggregate supply and demand, measured by the annual rate of change in real GDP. Since the 1991 Australian recession, characterized by negative growth of -0.2%, continuous growth has stabilized over the past two decades at an average of 3.5% per year, but has slowed to 3.1% during the 2000s. As the engine of global growth shifted from the United States to China during the 2000s, demand for Australian mineral resources such as coal and iron ore increased by 50% and by 80%, sustaining growth since 2004 and improving the TOT from 88.6 in 2003 to 153.2 in 2010. Since 2003, commodity prices have tripled alongside the TOT increase. increased demand for raw materials accounts for 54% of export earnings, thus adding 15% to Australia's national income and enabling greater AD investment. Average growth fell to 1.6% during the global financial crisis as AD components shrank significantly. Since then, economic activity has gradually increased, reaching a peak of 3.5% in 2011, thanks to the recovery of the resources boom and consumer confidence. Macroeconomic policies in which the RBA lowered interest rates to 3.25%, a 45-year low, and the government's large-scale $400 fiscal stimulus package helped evade recession by boosting consumption and public spending by the CEO. Since September 2013, Australia's economic growth has slowed to 2.4% amid declines in global demand for resources, business investment by 5.9% in 2013 and domestic consumption averaging a low of 2.2 % since 2008. A slight recovery to 2.8 in the fourth quarter of 2013 is attributed to the increase in export volume by 2.4%, imports falling by 0.6% & consumption of families up by 0.8%. Each year, exports increased by 6.5% while imports decreased by 4.6%. A...... middle of paper ...... and indexation set to save $3.15 billion over 4 years.• Complete deregulation of tuition fees from 2016 and increase HEC interest rates. • Increase funding by $830 million over 3 years to TAFE and private universities. • Gonski school funding eliminated from 2017-18 and indexed to inflation from 2018. Social Security • Taxpayers with taxable income over $180,000 pay an additional 2% tax through June 2017, saving $3.1 billion dollars in 4 years.• Family tax benefit B limited to families with a total income of less than $100,000 and until reaching 6 years of the youngest child.• 6 month waiting period for unemployed people under 30 to receive benefits, saving $1.2 billion over 4 years. • Old age pension age at 70 by 1 July 2035 – indexed to inflation rather than wages from September 2017. Defense • $122.7 billion over four years for defense spending with a 1.5 acceleration billions of dollars for new hardware.