In fact, the boom in commodity prices during the 2000s provided a significant boost to export revenues given that mineral exports account for over half of the continent’s total exports. Statistics from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show that there was almost a fourfold increase in Africa’s exports from USD149 billion in 2000 to USD595 billion in 2011.
There are two ways to look at this. Traditionally, our focus has been on the vulnerability of Canada’s financial system arising from elevated indebtedness. This means analyzing how our banks would manage a serious economic recession with high unemployment and increasing debt defaults. But the Bank is also focused on the vulnerability of our economy to rising interest rates, given high household debt.