Plan ahead for the rest of the year and don’t let your business miss out on trends that could have potentially benefited you. Here are 5 things your business really should consider in 2016:

1. China is slowing
A few years ago GDP growth was at 14% but has since halved to come in under 7%. The country’s slowdown is dragging down commodity prices and weighing on trade partners.

2. The Australian dollar at US$.70
This makes imports from overseas more expensive for your business. However, if you’re an export business you can make the most of the low Australian dollar and ideal export-marketing conditions.

3. Consumer confidence is slowly recovering
As the economy transitions away from mining, Australian consumers are slightly more optimistic than they were a year ago. It is still uncertain whether the upward trend will translate to increased spending but you should keep this in mind.

4. There are more tourists than ever
The Australian tourism sector is booming and even the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia in a 12-month period hitting 1 million for the first time in 2015. Direct tourism gross value added increased by 3.4% to $39.9 billion with businesses in the accommodation, hospitality and retail sectors in a very ideal position.

5. New technologies are giving us even more data on our businesses
The trend of businesses doing more with their data will continue through 2016 with the spread of self-service analytics and adoption of the cloud and Hadoop. The technology is at your fingertips for more data is to be produced and therefore analyse your business.

via Business Insider