These include: the growing importance of China and the East Asia Region as a major pole for global growth and international trade; the global transfer of skill enhancing technologies; the relative decline in the international price of information technologies and manufactured goods; and the rising international demand for highly skilled labour. Producers therefore have many global and domestic forces to respond to.
The success with which they adjust to global structural changes is also influenced by current economic conditions. For example, the challenges faced by producers competing against foreign lowcost producers, or multinationals with global supply chains, increase when our exchange rate overshoots.