Is Australia's digital economy really driving 30% of GDP?

A new study thinks so.

Almost one-third of Australia’s total gross domestic product (GDP) can be attributed to the digital economy, according to new research.

The number, in a new study by Accenture Strategy and Oxford Economics, is almost six times higher than some previous estimates.

For example, Australia’s Digital Pulse, released by the ACS and Deloitte last year, more conservatively estimated that the digital economy contributed 5.1 percent of Australia’s total GDP.

Accenture and Oxford Economics said they had come up with a new statistical model that more accurately reflected digital’s true influence on the total economy.

And they predicted that Australia could achieve another 2.4 percent in GDP growth by 2020 – adding some $34 billion – by pulling a combination of certain digital “levers”.

Those levers consist of digital accelerators, technology and skills, and Accenture’s modelling shows how much weight could be afforded to each lever to optimise economic gains from it.

The 2.4 percent/$34 billion number isn’t particularly new.

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