Until now the strongest protests and only significant voice raised against the Australian Federal Government’s proposed Mineral Resource Rent Tax (MMRT) has come from the mining industry itself and primarily from the iron ore and coal sectors which will be directly affected.
The Asia Pacific region will continue to be the sole source of market impetus for the coal industry during the remainder of 2011 and throughout 2012, with China, and to a lesser extent India, driving demand and Australia, Indonesia, and to a lesser, but increasing, extent Mongolia, the supply side. South Africa will also play a major role in satisfying Asian demand.
An Australian investment banker has urged the world to ready for China’s RMB currency to become one of three world financial yardsticks as the powerhouse economy increases the pace of internationalization of its RMB. It would sit alongside the United States dollar and the Euro, and would be paralleled as a currency yardstick by China’s significant shift in its next five year plan from an export-led economy to one that is consumer driven at the domestic level.