.Narrowly avoiding our Greek tragedy David Uren, Economics correspondent From: The Australian August 30, 2010
IF iron ore and coal prices were to drop back to 2002 levels, Australia's budget would be looking as bad as that of Greece. And the nation's future would be in the hands of the IMF. The deficit would be above $100 billion and approaching 10 per cent of GDP.
No one is forecasting such a fall -- indeed both Treasury and the Reserve Bank expect only a modest correction in resource prices as the China boom continues indefinitely. However, the analysis shows how narrowly based Australia's prosperity is.
