But we do need to be careful that the uncertainty that we feel about the future – and that is sometimes the undercurrent to these questions – does not mutate into chronic pessimism. If that were to happen, many of the opportunities that we do have are likely to go begging.
Looking to the future, it is unlikely that growth in our living standards will again come from a sustained lift in our terms of trade, which remain high in a historical context despite the falls of recent times (Graph 3). Of course, we cannot dismiss the possibility that we will be lucky again.