The Hunter economy is in a weak state and regional businesses need to increasingly look outside the Hunter for customers in order to remain profitable, according to Hunter Research Foundation’s (HRF) March quarter Hunter Economic Indicators.

Principal HRF economist and author of the Indicators, Dr Alan Rai, said the Hunter economy remains highly impacted by the end of the mining investment boom, with rising unemployment, particularly amongst the Region’s young people.

“Diversifying and broadening customer bases across different regions and nations would mitigate the impact on businesses’ performance of the Region’s weak economy,” Alan said.

“But only half of Hunter businesses surveyed in March trade outside the Hunter and only one-in-10 export overseas, down from around one-in-six in March 2010. This is despite the 10 per cent fall in the Australian dollar making our exports more price-competitive.”

HRF released the full Hunter Economic Indicators at its Hunter Economic Breakfast at Wests New Lambton last Friday morning.

HRF also launched a new Future of Hunter Services research project, as part of its Regional Competitiveness research theme, which aims to work with stakeholders to grow the regional economy and help to create jobs.

Stage 1 of the project will focus on three sub-sectors that together employed around 28,000 people in the Hunter in 2013-14.

To view the Hunter Economic Indicators overview, please click here.