The IMF, in its latest World Economic Outlook series, says the sharp decline in many metal and energy prices over the past few years will shave about 1 percentage point off gross domestic product growth rates between 2015 and 2017 in commodity-reliant emerging markets.

According to its formula, growth rates in Australia could slip to 1.8 per cent over the next three years, from 2.8 per cent between 2012 and last year.

However, reforms designed to smooth out the peaks and troughs of previous commodity booms means developed economies such as Australia should not suffer as much, the IMF says.

"Whether the decline in growth has opened up significant economic slack – that is, has increased the quantity of labour and capital that could be employed productively but is instead idle – and the degree to which it has done so are likely to vary considerably across commodity exporters," the IMF says.

"The variation depends on the cyclical position of the economy at the start of the commodity boom, the extent to which macroeconomic policies have smoothed or amplified the commodity price cycle, the extent to which structural reforms have bolstered potential growth, and other shocks to economic activity."

At the end of June, Australia's economic growth was running at 2 per cent, down from 2.5 per cent at the end of the first quarter.

Some indicators point to a further slowing in the growth rate, with the most bearish investment bank economists warning that Australia could struggle to reach 2 per cent growth this year. Goldman Sachs rates the chances of a recession at one in three.

However, HSBC senior economist Paul Bloxham argued on Monday that the depreciation of the Australian dollar was helping services exports compensate for the mining infrastructure downturn, while greater volumes of coal and iron ore were partly offsetting heavy price falls.

Although the commodities-related downswing is more marked in emerging markets whose economies aren't as open and flexible as Australia's, developed world commodities exporters are also vulnerable to slower growth when export prices come down, the IMF says.

Norway, one of the world's biggest oil exporters, last week cut its key overnight deposit rate to a record low 0.75 per cent in an effort to arrest declining growth rates and rising unemployment. Canada, another developed economy, has slipped into recession because of soft oil and gas prices.

"Commodity-exporting economies are at a difficult juncture," the IMF says.

"Global commodity prices have declined sharply over the past three years, and output growth has slowed considerably among commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies."

The IMF's warning echos those of a long list of Australian experts.

Celebrated home-grown economist Ross Garnaut warned in his 2013 book Dog Days that Australia faced a steady decline in living standards unless it lifted investment and skill development in activities outside of mining.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens has also addressed the subject in the past fews years, suggesting in a speech in July that policymakers and savers should lower the definition of "trend growth" from the 3 per cent or more assumed for "many years".

The RBA has cut the cash rate to a record low 2 per cent this year in bid to stoke investment and devalue the domestic currency to support non-resource exporters and import-exposed businesses.

More recently, former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson warned that Australia risked "sleepwalking" into the equivalent of a recession without tough economic reform.

Dr Parkinson told last month's National Reform Summit that if economic growth remained nearer to 2.5 per cent than 3 per cent, as much as 5 percentage points of gross domestic product would be lost over the next decade.

"If this is not happening because our population growth is slowing, it means willingly accepting the impact of a recession," he said.

"The loss of GDP from a recession is about 5 or 6 percentage points," he said.

AllianceBernstein's​ senior economist for Asia Pacific Guy Bruten agrees, warning on Monday that Australia's net national disposable income per capita has been in decline since the end of 2011.

The measure is the truest gauge of Australians' standard of living, adjusting for export and import prices, changes in population growth and and net income flows not accruing to residents.

"In our view, the GDP figures don't really reflect what's been going on in the Australian economy since 2011, when the commodities boom ended and our unusually favourable terms of trade – in which the prices we received for our exports were far in excess of what we paid for imports – began to fade," he said.

"During that period, GDP slowed from 3.7 per cent to 2.5 per cent which, while lower, was hardly shabby.

"If you look a little deeper than GDP allows you to, however, the picture looks a lot more serious," Bruten said.

How countries deal with wildly fluctuating export prices through fiscal and structural reform influences the height of the peaks and depths of the troughs in the boom-bust commodity cycle, the IMF says in a special study on the impact of the commodities slump on exporters.

It says reforms in Chile, Canada and Australia over the years have helped smooth the ups and downs of the commodities cycle, although, generally, it found that investment booms in commodity-exporting countries are "mostly booms in the commodity sector itself".

When prices and demand for those commodities weaken, output also slides, although in well-managed economies this level of activity is more sustainable.

The IMF concludes that commodity-exporters generally are better equipped these days to weather cyclical downturns in export prices.

"The findings of the study imply that the growth slowdown in the immediate aftermath of a commodity price boom most likely represents a return to a more sustainable level of output," the IMF says.

"At the same time, slowing investment and economic capacity can lead to lower potential output growth.

"Policymakers in commodity exporting countries therefore need to be careful not to overestimate the extent of excess capacity in their economies.

"A significant deceleration in growth rates is unavoidable."