By Harguan Kaur
Have any of you watched the finance report?
Well, unless you’re an economics student or a person with an interest in shares you probably haven’t. One of the key aspects of the reports is the price of oil and minerals. But why is oil and other minerals so important to Australia, and why does it matter so much what it’s trading at?
Simply put, a large amount of our economy runs our trade of minerals and oil. Specifically, iron, coal and gas account for a large amount of our trade. So why is this important? Many larger countries like China and America depend on these resources to make things like cars and building infrastructure, so we get A LOT of money for this trade.
How much? Well according to OEC in 2021 iron trade on its own was 118 BILLION dollars.
And this figure has only gotten higher in the past few years. This has been due to a variety of different factors such as ongoing global disputes and the decreasing supply of these goods. For example, the current price of iron is 129 dollars, but in 2019 it was 93 dollars. This is AMAZING news for the Australian trade market and for the economy, increased trade revenue can lead to different purchases in healthcare and infrastructure to benefit Australians!
But, is this good for the environment? The iron market itself produces 2.6 gigatonnes of carbon emissions annually. This feeds into climate change, and increases the temperature of our climate. This can lead to the polar caps melting and more natural disasters. Which ironically, will be cleaned up with the help of the money from our trade market…
So, do you think this advanced trading market is worth it?
