Index of Commodity Prices April 2012

Preliminary estimates for April indicate that the index fell by 1.6 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after rising by 0.5 per cent in March (revised). The largest contributors to the fall in April were decreases in the prices of coal, oil, gold and aluminium. In Australian dollar terms, the index rose by 0.4 per cent in April.

Over the past year, the index has fallen by 4.2 per cent in SDR terms. Much of this fall has been due to falls in the prices of metallurgical coal, iron ore, aluminium and wheat. The index has fallen by 5.2 per cent in Australian dollar terms over the past year.

As indicated in previous releases, preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal and thermal coal export prices are being used for recent months, based on market information.

For further details regarding the construction of the index, please refer to ‘Updating the RBA's Index of Commodity Prices’ in the October 2009 issue of the Bulletin.