The outset of the 21st century brought something of a ‘boom time’ for many resource-rich countries. Driven to a large extent by robust growth in China and other emerging economies, commodity prices boomed from 2002 to 2014. In many Latin American countries, the centuries-old pattern of producing large quantities of extractive resources and soft commodities for export intensified in the context of high prices for oil, gas, metals, minerals and agricultural products. This pattern has often been referred to as the ‘modelo primario exportador’ or primary commodities export model in the Latin American context. While the commodity price ‘super-cycle’ may...
