Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices

New weights for the RBA Index of Commodity Prices apply with the release of the index for March on 1 April 2020. The index has been reweighted according to an average of export values in 2017/18 and 2018/19 (previously 2016/17 and 2017/18). The index has been rebased so that the 2018/19 average is 100 (previously 2017/18).

Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on liquefied natural gas (LNG; which increased by 3.7 percentage points), the weight on gold (which declined by 1.2 percentage points), the weight on iron ore (which decreased by 0.9 percentage points), the weight on wheat (which declined by 0.8 percentage points) and the weight on metallurgical coal (which declined by 0.6 percentage points). Nickel was included in the index because its share of the value of commodity exports increased to around 0.3 per cent (up from less than 0.1 per cent in 2016/17 and 2017/18); nickel had been excluded since the March 2018 release because of its small share.

For further details regarding the methodology used for constructing the index, please refer to ‘Changes to the RBA Index of Commodity Prices: 2013’ in the March 2013 issue of the Bulletin.[1] The list of data sources used in constructing the Index of Commodity Prices has been updated. Please refer to Sources of the Price Measures Used in the ICP for further information.

Details are in the attached table and graph.

Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices
Per cent
Weight(a)
From 1 April 2020 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020
Rural commodities 10.5 12.2
Wool 1.5 1.6
Beef and veal 3.4 3.4
Wheat 1.6 2.4
Barley 0.7 0.9
Canola 0.4 0.8
Sugar 0.6 0.9
Cotton 0.9 0.9
Lamb and mutton 1.4 1.3
Base metals 4.3 4.2
Aluminium 1.6 1.7
Lead 0.4 0.5
Copper 1.3 1.4
Zinc 0.7 0.7
Nickel 0.3 na
Bulk commodities 52.6 54
Iron ore 27.1 28
Metallurgical coal 16.0 16.6
Thermal coal 9.5 9.4
Other resources 32.6 29.6
LNG 15.8 12.1
Crude oil 2.9 2.6
Alumina 4.1 3.9
Gold 7.5 8.7
Copper ore 2.3 2.3
Total 100.0 100.0
(a) Commodity weights may not sum to subindex weights due to rounding

Sources: ABARES; ABS; RBA

Graph: RBA Index of Commodity Prices

Footnote

Note that ‘Changes to the RBA Index of Commodity Prices: 2013’ refers to average export values of 2010/11 and 2011/12 and is based using 2011/12 average is 100. [1]