This chapter provides an overview of the economic performance and current situation of the economies in the Oceanic region. Oceania comprises the economically developed countries of Australia and New Zealand plus the more than 20 island countries and protectorates of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. In 2018, Australia dominated the region in terms of population (71% of the total for Oceania) and gross domestic product (86%). Melanesia, which includes Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and New Caledonia, contained 26% of the region's population and generated 4% of its gross regional product. According to the authors' forecasting model, Oceania's share of both world population and gross world product will rise strongly during the coming three decades, admittedly from a low base. Reflecting the high degree of complementarity of the Oceanic economies with those of Asia, this strong growth in the Oceanic region should support increasingly attractive opportunities for trade and investment with the economies of Asia.
TopOverview
The economies of Oceania, individually and in total, are small compared to those of Asia. In 2018, Oceania’s population was 41 million, or 0.9 percent that of Asia. Oceania’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP), of just over I$ 38,500, was 2.6 times that of Asia, and its gross regional product (GRP), of I$ 1.6 trillion, was 2.4 percent of the GRP of Asia.1 The economies of Oceania, comprising about 25 countries and protectorates, had average population of about 1.6 million and GDP of I$ 63 billion while for the 49 countries of Asia average population was 86 million and average GDP of I$ 1.3 trillion. However, the difference in scale, there is a high degree of complementary between the economies of the two regions, with Oceania being an important source for Asia of raw materials and education, health and financial services, Asia being the leading supplier for Oceania of a wide range of manufactured products and each region providing a market for the other in tourism, investment products.
For the purposes of this chapter, Oceania is divided into four regions: Australia and New Zealand (Table 2), Melanesia (Table 5), Micronesia (Table 6) and Polynesia (Table 7). Table 1 shows the performance of these regions in 2018 with respect to labour force, labour productivity, gross regional product (GRP), population, and per capita GRP. The ANZ region dominated in all categories: it accounted for 74 percent of the labour force, 71 percent of the population and 95 percent of GRP. Its labour productivity and per capita GRP were 7.6 and 7.8 times the corresponding averages in the rest of the region. Among the three smaller regions, Melanesia had the largest GRP (I$ 62 billion) and Micronesia had the highest per capita GRP ($15,116).
Table 1. The Major regions in Oceania, 2018
| Labour force (m) | Labour productivity
(I$) | GRP (I$ bn) | Population (m) | Per capita GDP (I$) |
| ANZ | 15.7 | 96,745 | 1,520 | 29.6 | 51,424 |
| Melanesia | 4.6 | 13,473 | 62 | 10.7 | 5,811 |
| Micronesia | 0.2 | 34,684 | 7 | 0.5 | 15,116 |
| Polynesia | 0.6 | 13,912 | 8 | 0.7 | 12,013 |
| Oceania | 21.1 | 75,636 | 1,598 | 41 | 38,579 |
| Asia | 2,086.5 | 31,001 | 64,683 | 4,286 | 15,091 |
| World | 3,415.2 | 39,627 | 135,334 | 7,676 | 17,630 |
Sources. World Bank’s World Economic Indicators, IMF’s World Economic Outlook, UN Population Division, CIA’s World Factbook
Notes. (1) GRP is measured in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, at 2018 prices.
(2) ANZ refers to Australia and New Zealand