The following information was delivered in a speech today by Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia:
The increase in Australia's population growth over the past decade is largely due to increased immigration; the rate of natural increase has not changed that much (Graph 2). Over recent times, net overseas migration has, on average, added around 1 per cent to our population each year. The increase from natural sources has averaged around 0.7 per cent per year.
There has been a reasonable amount of year-to-year variation in net overseas migration. Migration increased sharply at the height of the resources boom when demand for skilled labour was very strong, and then subsequently declined as the mining investment boom came to an end. In this way, migration has helped our economy adjust to large swings in the demand for labour. It has also helped address some particular skills shortages.
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