Finally, in thinking about the implications of the recent changes in relative prices an important consideration is how persistent they are likely to be. There would seem to be little benefit in changing the structure of the economy to reflect the new relative prices, only for the old set of relative prices to reassert themselves quite quickly.
As the Governor noted in a speech a couple of weeks ago, we cannot be sure how long the current boom in the terms of trade will last. However, given that it is being driven by structural changes in the global economy, it is likely that commodity prices will be above their average over recent decades for some time yet.