Harvests are dependent on the weather, and short-term changes in demand are out of kilter with the long-term investments needed to boost supplies of metals and oil.
Welcome though the news is, while the government's new-found discipline remains dependent on emergency squeezes, the markets are likely to continue to demand a premium that will prevent interest rates from falling enough to turn promising recovery into sustained high growth.
Outside of China and India (which this week reported 8.8% second-quarter growth compared with a year earlier), developing Asia remains heavily dependent on external demand.