Immigration trends
Permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia totalled 844,960 over the year to November, up 2 per cent from a year earlier, but just a notch lower over the past two months.
Net of departures, total arrivals were around 297,000, implying population growth of around 380,000 or 1½ per cent after accounting for natural population growth (births minus deaths).
Asian century
Tourism was still romping along until November, on the back of the Asian century.
And short-term international education arrivals hit yet another record high at 619,100 over the year to November.
Unfortunately, the raging bushfires will blast a $1 billion hole in the tourism figures, blowing yet another hole into the ailing Aussie economy.
The growth in short-term arrivals over the year to November was driven by Victoria (up 6 per cent year-on-year) and Tasmania (up 8 per cent).
There's been a fairly sharp drop in short-term arrivals from Hong Kong as the unrest and demonstrations continued.
There's less tourism from Hong Kong, but plenty of capital is winding its way back to Australia.
