Australia’s export earnings from the resources and energy sector are likely to hit a record high of $215 billion as per official forecasts. The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics forecast in its last quarterly report that a 21% increase was expected in the 2011-2012 export earnings.
The bureau chief Quentin Grafton said that the 21 % increase in resources and energy export earnings reflected strong increases for most commodities including coal, iron ore, oil and gas, base metals and gold.
Electricity coal would be up 29 percent at $18 billion, gold is looking set to increase 49 percent to $9 billion, crude oil and condensate are to go up 13 percent at $13 billion and liquefied natural gas will be 11 percent firmer at $12 billion as per the bureau forecasts.
Quentin Grafton said that while prices for a number of commodities are forecast to ease in 2012, it should be noted that in some cases they are coming off record high levels and still indicated a very positive outlook for the industry.
Weak economic growth in North America and Europe will be countered by industrializing nations in Asia such as China and India. Australia was chiefly able to avoid the global economic crisis due to the strong demand of mining resources from China.