The first is that the impact of the resources sector expansion does get spread around, in more ways than might immediately be apparent. Obviously mining employs only a small share of the workforce directly – less than 2 per cent. But to produce a dollar of revenue, companies spend about 40 cents on acquiring non labour intermediate inputs, primarily from the domestic sector.
In Italy, it came at the end of a long process that began in the early 1980s when Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, then governor of the Bank of Italy, emphatically remarked that “Central banks autonomy, reinforcement of budgetary procedures and a code for collective bargaining are a prerequisite for monetary stability”.21  21  Ciampi (1981), p. 183. See also Visco (1985).