Department of Economics. University of Melbourne. Parkville Victoria 3052 Australia
ABSTRACTS
In this paper we examine the trends in the prices of natural resource commodities in Australia. The existing literature predicts rising prices for minerals, indicative of scarcity. We present a menu of tests to characterise the observed trends in the prices of 12 resources and do not find any such general trend. Of the 12 series examined, only one is stationary in levels. Of the 11 non stationary price series 4 show a positive trend. The rest are either negative or stochastic. We also examine the behaviour of the All Resources Index, which is a measure of the aggregate activity in the natural resources sector in the country.
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