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.
But it would surely be unwise to hope for ever-rising export prices as the basis for improving our living standards. Similarly, with our population ageing, it seems unlikely that we will see a repeat of the large increase in the share of the population in paid employment.