the mining sector rose from around 2 per cent of gdp in the early 2000s, where it had been for much of the previous five decades to peak at around 9 per cent of gdp in 2012 / 13. or, to put that in dollar terms, investment spending in the mining sector in 2006 / 07 totalled $ 41 billion and rose to a peak of $ 136 billion in 2012 / 13. the reasons for the huge rise in investment spending in the mining sector have been well documented. in the case of iron ore and coal, it was a response to the large rise in commodity prices through the 2000s, predominantly driven by the emergence and strong resource - intensive growth of china. investment spending to increase capacity in the iron ore and coal industries accounts for around 40 per cent of the spending over the past decade ( graph 3 ). a larger share has been spent in the liquefied natural gas ( lng ) sector, which is not only a china story, with a large part of lng exports also destined for japan and korea. graph 3 many of these investment decisions, particularly in iron ore and coal, took place well before commodity prices peaked. these projects are large with very long lead times ; lng projects often take more than five years to complete. the investment decisions were predicated on prices much lower than those subsequently seen through the height of the commodity price boom. prices for iron ore and coal in australian dollar terms today still compare favourably with the level assumed when commissioning these projects. http : / / www. rba. gov. au / speeches / 2017 / sp - dg - 2017 - 11 - 13. html 3 / 13 13 / 11 / 2017 business investment in australia | speeches | rba since the peak in 2012 / 13, investment spending in the resource sector has declined as projects have been completed. as they have been completed, production has been ramped up and we are now seeing the benefits of that with large increases in resource exports. since 2007, iron ore export volumes have more than doubled and coal export volumes have increased by 70 per cent ( graph 4 ). the bank's assessment is that the vast bulk of the increase in production for these commodities is now behind us, with only a project or two still to be completed. lng is in a much earlier stage of the process. lng exports have risen by 75 per cent over the past couple of years and our expectation is that, over the next couple of years, exports are likely to increase

unemployment rises, more households will have difficulty continuing to service their housing loans. on the other hand, the very large reduction in interest rates has greatly reduced the debt servicing burden of households. on an average - sized mortgage, loan repayments are now $ 7, 000 a year less than they were six months ago. this is a very large reduction, equal to about 8 per cent of average household income. the majority of households have chosen not to spend the money that has been freed up. rather, they have maintained high repayments and are therefore moving ahead of schedule in repaying their loans. this will give them breathing space if they do subsequently find themselves in circumstances where their repayments are interrupted. conclusion let me sum up by saying that the past six months have been a very difficult time for the world economy. there are some tentative signs of improvement, but in reality it is going to take quite some time for the world to recover from the financial shock that has occurred. while the australian economy has also weakened, it has held up better than most during this difficult period, helped by earlier disciplined policies and prudent financial behaviour. however, there are limits on how much we can insulate ourselves from what is happening abroad, and therefore there are probably still some difficult times ahead. nonetheless, the underpinnings of the australian economy are sound so we are well placed to benefit from the global economic recovery when it comes.