Australia may experience a commodities boom for the next few decades due to growing demand from China and India.
Australia’s treasury secretary Ken Henry said the impact of the global economic downturn on the Chinese and Indian economies was not as much as perceived.
“It seems that’s likely to support relatively high commodity prices, that is prices for Australian export commodities, for a considerable period of time, quite possibly for some decades,” Henry said.
Australia has experienced high economic growth over the past decade, bolstered by strong resources demand from China and India until the global economic downturn, according to AFP.
In September BHP Billiton said it expected growth in China to bring about a new boom over the next few decades, with steel demand worldwide likely to double in 15 years.
In 2008 Australia’s number two trading partner was China, registering a two-way trade worth A$73.93bn ($68.50bn) – a 13.3% increase compared to the previous year.
Iron ore constituted over 50% of Australia’s 32.48 billion in exports to China, doubling to A$8.0bn dollars over the year.
Australia indicated that trade links with China was the main factor for its success in coping with the global economic slump.
Australia is the only major Western country to avert a recession in the global economic downturn and registered a 0.6% growth in the three months to June, the highest in the developed world.
