The Western Australian grain industry had its worst season since the 2002-03 drought, with poor conditions in most parts of the state forcing harvest receivals down.
WA Business News' third annual State Economic Review comes during a continuing period of prosperity for Western Australia, courtesy to a large extent of China's accelerating economic growth.
The skills shortage continues to affect the Western Australian workforce, with an all-time low unemployment rate and strong wage growth recorded for the past year.
Global economic growth, particularly from China, resulted in price rises for many mineral commodities and continued historical highs for others in 2007, a trend that will continue into 2008, according to ABARE.
Housing markets are providing a timely reminder that the gravitational pull of cycles can be hard to avoid, even in a booming state such as Western Australia.
Strong growth in interstate and overseas migration helped lift Western Australia's population by 2.1 per cent to 2,094,549 in the year to March 2007, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Western Australia's tourism market picked up strongly in 2006 with an overall increase in visitors numbers and a combined spending surge of $5 billion breaking the all-time record.
The state's buoyant economic conditions have resulted in increases in consumer spending, with low unemployment and rising personal incomes leading to strong consumer confidence.
Several Perth entrepreneurs are nervous about the impact a change of federal government next month could have on the Australian economy in three to five years' time.
Lowering the expectations of first homebuyers is something that has to happen in a climate where the cost of property is climbing, according to AHS Hospitality managing director Stephen Lauder.
Navigating a business through Western Australia's economic boom presents enormous challenges for business, according to several leading WA business executives.
Western Australian agribusiness exporters experienced mixed fortunes this season, with drought conditions putting pressure on the grains sector, while other sectors, such as meat, livestock and forestry experience a growth in revenues.
While Western Australia's mining industry is well-represented on the list of the state's top exporters, a number of manufacturing and technology companies are also creating significant export revenue.
In Western Australia's turbo-charged economy, the property sector has been a standout performer, across the board – but the huge rises in values are not always good news.
The ‘seachange' phenomenon and unprecedented growth in recreational boat registrations in Western Australia are being met with increased marina development activity up and down the coast.
Western Australia's residential property market has come off the boil, sending Perth's median house price down to $446,500 in the June quarter, according to preliminary figures of the Real Estate Institute of WA.
Perth's commercial office market has been a landlords' dream during the past 12 months, prompting significant sales activity in the CBD and a few headaches for tenants.
Wesfarmers CEO Richard Goyder has great admiration for retailing executives such as Archie Norman, who was largely responsible for turning around the fortunes of UK supermarket group, Asda, before its sale to American retail giant Wal-Mart in 1999.
When Coles CEO John Fletcher famously told the media that he had barely been in a supermarket for 25 years, it passed largely unnoticed that this could be a problem as he took the helm of Melbourne-based retailers Coles Myer Ltd, as it was then known.
An innovative takeover sweetener for Coles Group Ltd shareholders became all the more important last week when an independent expert's report revealed Wesfarmers Ltd would effectively secure the retailer on the cheap.
While Western Australia is witnessing a boom in mining and resources projects, several major non-mining projects, with a combined value of almost $2 billion, are also in the pipeline.
The oil and gas sector is set to make an increased contribution to WA's strong economy with eight major expansion projects under way, including the state's single most expensive development, Woodside Petroleum's $12 billion Pluto gas project.
The state government has copped a lot of flak over cost increases and construction delays on its metropolitan railway expansion project, but its problems are modest compared with some of the largest resource projects being built in Western Australia.
