Driver Overview
This section shows a country’s rank, ranking change and score for each of the eight drivers. It also categorises each country’s driver performance on a scale from “Emerging” (score from 0-20) to “Global Leader” (score from 80-100).
Rank
Score /100
Best practice
Metric Overview
Strengths
Transparency in public procurement
Australia's public procurement notices are made available online and tender documents transparently detail procurement procedures. A transparent process encourages more participation and competition, which drive value for money.
Summary credit rating
Australia is AAA-rated by four international credit rating agencies, with a stable outlook, one of only four InfraCompass 2020 countries. Australia’s high credit worthiness provides favourable borrowing costs for infrastructure investments, but could be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cost to start a business
According to the World Bank, the average cost of starting a businesses is 0.7% of income per capita, easing the entry of new firms.
Top Performing Metrics
Top Performing Metrics
This is defined by the metrics with the highest unweighted score out of 100.
Procurement:
Transparency in public procurement
Funding capacity:
Summary credit rating
Permits:
Cost to start a business
Opportunities to Grow
Long term GDP growth trend
The long-term GDP growth rate for Australia is projected at 2.6% compared to the 20 year historical average of 3.2%. Long-term growth rates signal a country’s capacity to fund infrastructure from future growth. The COVID-19 pandemic may impact GDP growth trends.
Average procurement duration – transaction RFP
Australia has one of the highest durations from announcement of a tender to contract award at 43 months, greater than the High Income Countries average of 28.5 months. Lengthy procurement durations add costs, risks and down time to contractors bidding for and investing in infrastructure projects.
Gross government debt
Australia's gross government debt rose to 42% of GDP in 2019, a figure which may increase further due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Australia’s fiscal position.
Metrics to Improve
Metrics to Improve
This is defined by the metrics with the lowest weighted score out of 100, such that these metrics would have the greatest impact on the overall score.
For metrics that have binary outcomes (yes=100/no=0), no comparative income group average is reported.
Funding capacity:
Long term GDP growth trend
Procurement:
Average procurement duration – transaction RFP
Funding capacity:
Gross government debt
Detailed Data
This section shows country data for each of the 41 metrics. The figures in brackets denote the change in score since InfraCompass 2017.
Note that all data has been normalised on a scale of 1-100. For raw metric data, please download the complete InfraCompass 2020 dataset.
Where relevant, some metric scores have been inverted, such that all metrics have positive relationships with good infrastructure outcomes. For example, since lower compliance costs make it easier to invest in infrastructure, the normalised value of ‘number of procedures to start a business’ has been reversed such that lower number of procedures are scored closer to 100, and higher numbers closer to 0. In other words, a score of 0 indicates a poor performance, rather than 0 number of procedures.
28.2%
The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.
20.7%
World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.
18.1%
Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.
15.1%
Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).
12.8%
Political stability and absence of violence score
Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.
5%
Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.
Australia
High Income Countries Average
Description
The recovery rate is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganisation, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings.
Weighting (% of Driver)
28.2%
Source Link
Description
World Governance Composite Indicator reflecting perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, and in particular the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence. The rule of law reflects whether the law imposes limits of power on the state, private sector and individuals.
Weighting (% of Driver)
20.7%
Description
Whether the country conducts post-completion reviews on infrastructure projects to ensure the forecast outcomes are being achieved.
Weighting (% of Driver)
18.1%
Source Link
Description
Measures the governance practices that protect shareholders through three dimensions: the extent of shareholder rights index (shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate decisions), the extent of ownership and control index (governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control and entrenchment), and the extent of corporate transparency index (corporate transparency on ownership stakes).
Weighting (% of Driver)
15.1%
Source Link
Description
Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence, including terrorism. Estimate gives the country's score on the aggregate indicator, in units of a standard normal distribution i.e. ranging from approximately -2.5 to 2.5.
Weighting (% of Driver)
12.8%
Description
Whether an infrastructure agency exists to coordinate an integrated approach to infrastructure delivery and policy.
Weighting (% of Driver)
5%
Source Link
Country Overview Data
63,464 USD
Population25.8 million persons
79.2 (0-100 best)
Infrastructure investment3.8% of GDP
Infrastructure gap0.3% of GDP
1,376 USD billion
GDP growth rate1.7%
GDP per capita growth rate-4.6%
Gini coefficient35.8 (0-100 worst)
Gross Government Debt42.0% of GDP
Inflation rate1.6%
Summary credit rating100.0 (0-100 best)
Unemployment rate5.3%
Urbanisation ratio86.0% of total population
Road connectivity94.5 (0-100 best)
4.9 (1-7 best)
Efficiency of train services4.4 (1-7 best)
Efficiency of air transport services5.5 (1-7 best)
Efficiency of seaport services4.8 (1-7 best)
Electricity access100.0% of population
Electricity supply quality5.3% of output lost
Exposure to unsafe drinking water1.7% of population
Reliability of water supply6.5 (1-7 best)
Digital Adoption Index0.7 (0-1 best)
Mobile-broadband subscriptions134.1 per 100 population
Fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions32.2 per 100 population