The graph gives information about the percentage of Australian goods exported to four countries, namely Japan, the US, China and India between 1990 and 2012.
Overall, the percentage of exports to the US and Japan showed a downward trend for most of the period. At the same time, the countries that initially stood the lowest — China and India — saw an increase, with the figure for the former becoming the highest by the end of the period.
At the beginning of the period, Japan was the country with the highest percentage of exports from Australia, then the figure fell until 2003 when it reached a low of approximately 16%. From then on, the proportion of exports fluctuated between 17% and 20% until 2009. Then, in 2009, it levelled off at roughly 17%. The US started the second highest, at approximately 11%, then it demonstrated a fall to 8% in 1995 and a return to its initial level in 1999. Afterwards, the percentage of exports steadily fell up to 2010, when it started to marginally grow.
India started at the lowest level among the four countries, with a mere 2 percent. Showing consistent growth, the figure peaked at 8% in 2009, thus exceeding that for the USA. It was, however, followed by a fall and India had the lowest percentage among all the countries, as it did at the beginning. In 1990, the percentage of exports to China were slightly higher than that for India, nevertheless China showed the largest growth among all the countries, dramatically increased by almost 25 percentage points and in 2012 peaked at 27%, which amounted to a ninefold increase.