The extent of Australia's minerals boom was underlined on Monday when its official forecasting agency predicted export earnings from commodities would achieve the biggest annual rise in four decades in 2008-09, hitting a record.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics forecast the value of the country's commodity exports would rise 40 per cent to A$212bn (US$201bn) in the financial year to June 2009, led by a 48 per cent surge in mineral exports to A$178bn.