Price gains help boost export: Australian treasurer

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan on Friday said further price gains in bulk commodities such as iron ore and coal will help boost export earnings by 50 billion dollars (42.3 billion U.S. dollars) in the coming financial year.

Addressing a conference in Brisbane, Swan said contract iron ore prices in the current quarter had doubled from a year ago and coal prices had also risen substantially.

"We've already seen big increases in prices for key commodity resource over the past five years, and further rises are in prospect," Swan told the Australia India Business Council National Conference in Brisbane.

As a result, Australia's terms of trade were likely to exceed the peaks seen in 2008.

"And that means a big boost to export earnings, which is expected to increase by almost 50 billion dollars (42.3 billion U. S. dollars) in the coming financial year," Swan told Australian Associated Press.

Swan noted that India had posted "remarkable" 8.6 percent growth in the year to March, alongside China's 11.9 percent economic expansion in the same period.

He said India has become Australia's third largest export destination and one of Australia's fastest growing major export markets, having tripled in the last five years.

"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that by 2015 India will receive more than one-tenth of Australia's merchandise exports," the treasurer said.

Source:Xinhua