although it was not as large as that in australia. 2 / 12 bis central bankers'speeches this difference reflects two factors. the first is that the prices of australia ’ s main commodity exports – iron ore and coal – increased by significantly more than the price of canada ’ s main commodity export, oil. the short - run supply curve in iron ore and coal tends to be very steep, so the prices for these steel - making commodities increased very sharply when chinese investment in property and infrastructure really took off. the second factor is that commodities make up a larger share of australia ’ s total exports than is the case for canada. both of our countries have also experienced a pronounced cycle in mining investment. not surprisingly, reflecting the larger movement in our commodity prices, the cycle has been bigger in australia. here, mining investment went from 2 per cent of gdp in the early 2000s to 9 per cent in 2012 ( graph 2 ). another difference with canada is that our main export partner, china, has grown at an average rate of almost 10 per cent over this period, compared with just 2 per cent average growth in canada ’ s main export partner, the united states. 3 / 12 bis central bankers'speeches both our countries accommodated the increase in mining investment without overheating. our flexible exchange rates played an important role here. given the larger cycle in mining investment here, the impact on the rest of the economy has been more pronounced. while many parts of our economy did well from the boom in mining investment, others did not as they dealt with the higher exchange rate and found it difficult and more expensive to hire workers. one illustration of this broad impact is the substantial decline in australia in non - mining investment as a share of gdp from the mid 2000s ( graph 2 ). by way of contrast, canadian non - mining investment has shown much less variation. for some time, a major factor shaping our forecasts for the australian economy has been a rebalancing of investment between the resources and non - resources sectors. we estimate that the decline of mining investment back to normal levels is around 90 per cent done. so this headwind, which has been weighing on gdp growth for some time, will blow itself out before too long. another headwind we have had for some years is the fall in commodity prices, but this has turned into a gentle tailwind since mid last year. since then the prices of all our main commodity exports have risen. this is good news for us, although we are

david carse : bank consolidation in hong kong speech by mr david carse, deputy chief executive of the hong kong monetary authority, at the jp morgan asian financial institutions strategy conference, hong kong, 1 june 2001. * * * ladies and gentlemen i am grateful to j p morgan for giving me the opportunity to speak to you this morning on the subject of bank consolidation in hong kong. consolidation of the banking industry has been a prominent feature of many of the world's leading financial centres during the last decade. hong kong has been something of an outlier in this respect. my speech today will explain some of the reasons for this and will describe how and why this situation is changing. i will also discuss the attitude of the hong kong monetary authority towards the process of consolidation and what we can do to assist. the g10 report on financial consolidation the trend towards amalgamation among the world's financial institutions prompted the g10 finance ministers and central bank governors in september 1999 to commission a study of financial consolidation and its potential effects. a working party was formed for this purpose, which reported in january of this year. the report is available in both summary and detailed form on the bis website. the g10 report notes that there was a high level of merger and acquisition activity in the 1990s among the financial firms in the 13 countries studied. banks were the main participants in this. the annual number of m & a deals increased threefold during the 1990s and the total value of deals increased almost tenfold in the 13 countries as a whole. moreover, the trend accelerated during the period, with a noticeable increase in activity in the last three years of the decade. as we proceed into the first years of the 21st century, there is little sign of this trend abating. the result has been the creation of a significant number of large and complex banking groups with a global reach. the host of today's conference is a living example of this. we also, of course, have our own homegrown example in the shape of hsbc. motivations for consolidation the motivations behind all this activity are not hard to discern. banks, like other companies, are in business primarily to generate value for their shareholders. m & a, it is commonly held, offers an effective means of achieving this through creating synergies that can increase revenue and reduce cost. in particular, larger banks may be able to achieve revenue gains by filling gaps in their product range and offering customers the opportunity of " one - stop