changes in sentiment affecting other parts of the resource sector. of greater concern for lng projects are rising costs, which reduce the returns on projects underway and reduce the prospects of future expansions. some of what has been reported as higher costs by mining companies reflects the appreciation of the australian dollar. some companies had budgeted for these projects in us dollar terms at a lower exchange rate than we face currently. still, there ’ s no denying that costs have increased over time even in australian dollar terms. graph 7 the estimates for gdp and employment shares of the resource sector as a whole in the mid 2000s are 10 per cent and almost 5 per cent, respectively. bis central bankers ’ speeches graph 8 we can try to look at some data from the australian bureau of statistics to gain some understanding of changes in costs over time, although it will not pick up important differences across different projects in different industries. there is evidence in the aggregate data of higher inflation of wages in the mining industry, and across western australia more generally ( graph 7 ). while the growth of these wages has picked up a little recently, this is unlikely to be sufficient to account for the magnitude of some of the cost overruns being reported. nevertheless, the level of wages in the mining industry remains relatively high, though this reflects the relatively high capital - to - labour ratio in this industry ( graph 8 ). one plausible explanation for at least some of the cost overruns is logistical problems affecting a number of projects. it seems that the engineering challenges for some projects are even more complex than initially thought. there are cases of projects taking longer to complete, and / or requiring more investment to bring them to fruition. in other cases, the scope of the project may have changed. all of these things can alter the profile for mining investment by affecting both the timing and the amount of expenditure. graph 9 bis central bankers ’ speeches so, what ’ s been the net effect on the outlook for mining investment overall of these changes in sentiment, timing, scope and costs? as best we can tell, mining investment now appears likely to reach a peak a bit earlier – sometime this year – and at a lower level – of around 8 per cent of gdp – than we had earlier expected ( graph 9 ). this is broadly consistent with the latest abs survey of firms ’ capital expenditure plans, which shows that in the mining sector, the growth of nominal investment in 2012 / 13 was revised from around 40 per cent to 20 per cent from the june quarter

as to facilitate better interfaces between the financial management systems of corporates ( i. e. enterprise resource planning systems ) and the systems operated by banks. new standards will allow account - related information to be handled more efficiently. corporates will also receive additional information on their bank statements thanks to sepa. “ sepa : potential benefits at stake – researching the impact of sepa on the payments market and its stakeholders ”, capgemini consulting. let me now turn to those issues that need to be addressed by corporates in order to ensure that sepa is implemented successfully. • first, corporates will have to migrate their databases, which still contain national account numbers, in order to incorporate the international bank account numbers. most euro area countries have agreed on a migration procedure aimed at assisting the corporates to do this. 3 • second, corporates will have to contact the banks in order to be able to better evaluate the benefits that sepa will bring to their organisation. banks will provide information as to how products and payment cycles may be improved, but you could also contact your provider directly with regard to better products. • third, corporates could plan ahead. several initiatives are under way, which are focusing on corporate - to - bank connectivity and a standardised way of transmitting remittance information with the payment. so far, not many corporates have actively started preparing themselves for sepa, as for them, the precise impact of sepa is not entirely clear. this is probably related to the initial reluctance of banks and software providers to communicate on sepa, as some of their products are still in the pilot phase. by the end of 2010, we expect the vast majority of payments to be executed as sepa payments. however, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a need to specify an end date on which the current payment instruments will be phased out. 4 so far, a conversion procedure for migrating from the traditional national account number ( bban ) to the international account number ( iban ) has been agreed in 13 euro area countries ( be, de, es, fr, gr, it, cy, lu, mt, nl, at, si, fi ). the decision process has not yet been finalised in two euro area countries ( ie, pt ). so far, a schedule for the phasing - out of national payment instruments has been agreed in six euro area countries ( be, fr, cy, nl, si and fi ). discussions have already