Increasing signs of a slowdown in China--the latest manufacturing survey shows the sector is only just treading water--are blowing a chill wind over Australia's miners. Mining makes up around half of Australia's exports and China is by far the country's biggest customer, accounting for nearly a quarter of Australian sales abroad.
During the past 30 years, government revenues from the UK's North Sea oil have gone towards current consumption. The government used the windfall to cut taxes and spend more on services. Norway, by contrast, salted much of it away into a sovereign wealth fund, there to soften the blow for when the oil runs out. Its sovereign wealth fund, the biggest in the world, is worth some $730 billion...............................................Full Article: Source |