Treasury budget papers predict that services exports will rise 12% in 2022-23 as international students and foreign tourist begin to return to Australia, before increasing by 29% in 2023-24. International students pumped $24 billion into the economy each year before the pandemic hit, but even though 130,000 students have arrived in Australia since borders opened on 1 November, education exports are tipped to fall by 5.5% in 2021-22:
Service exports are expected to fall in 2021-22 before growing strongly in 2022-23 and 2023-24. The movements in services exports reflect changes to Australia’s international borders, which began a progressive reopening in November 2021 and are now open to all vaccinated persons. The reopening of international borders has supported a strong pick up in international travel, with more than 130,000 student arrivals and 190,000 tourist arrivals since November 2021…
Even though student arrivals have picked up significantly, education exports are still expected to fall in 2021-22 as the number of students completing their studies exceeds new student commencements. This will drive a 5½ per cent fall in services exports in 2021-22.
