You're right by reading up on current issues as well, and it'll be easier if you cut out relevant articles and organise them into sections according to the syllabus - it's a bit more work, but it makes it ALOT easier when you come back to study and have all the relevant articles in front of you. At our school, we actually have to hand in a portfolio that has everything we collected during the year arranged logically. But even if yours doesn't, it's a good habit to pick up.
You asked how you can use what you've collected in your exams. For one thing, newspapers and other sources provide very recent statistics that are probably more useful than the ones in your textbook. There's nothing more annoying than getting statistics from 2000-2001 when there's more recent stuff avaliable. Second, adopt the recent events into an essay/assignment if relevant - and again, organising articles into syllabus dotpoints makes it alot more convinient. For example, in an essay about exchange rates, you can explain the influences upon it (purely textbook) and then chuck in how our dollar has been appreciating because of some weakness in the US dollar etc.
SMH has the odd article that can be very helpful, but try getting your hands on the Financial Review as well.
Our school also gives us copies of something called 'Plain English Economics' which is a monthly bulletin that summarises key economic events during that month. From there, I usually do a search to find more detailed articles.
Hope some of this helps!
