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 2019. The index has been reweighted according to an average of export values in 2016/17 and 2017/18 (previously 2015/16 and 2016/17). The index has been rebased so that the 2017/18 average is 100 (previously 2016/17).
Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on metallurgical coal (which increased by 2.0 percentage points), the weight on liquefied natural gas (LNG; which increased by 1.8 percentage points), the weight on iron ore (which declined by 1.2 percentage points), the weight on gold (which declined by 0.8 percentage points) and the weight on beef and veal (which declined by 0.7 percentage points).
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]
Details are in the attached table and graph.
| Weight(a) | ||
|---|---|---|
| From 1 April 2019 | 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2019 | |
| Rural commodities | 12.2 | 13.7 |
| Wool | 1.6 | 1.5 |
| Beef and veal | 3.4 | 4.1 |
| Wheat | 2.4 | 3.0 |
| Barley | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Canola | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Sugar | 0.9 | 1.1 |
| Cotton | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Base metals | 4.2 | 4.8 |
| Aluminium | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Lead | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| Copper | 1.4 | 1.8 |
| Zinc | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Nickel | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Bulk commodities | 54.0 | 52.7 |
| Iron ore | 28.0 | 29.2 |
| Metallurgical coal | 16.6 | 14.6 |
| Thermal coal | 9.4 | 8.9 |
| Other resources | 29.6 | 28.7 |
| LNG | 12.1 | 10.3 |
| Crude oil | 2.6 | 2.7 |
| Alumina | 3.9 | 3.8 |
| Gold | 8.7 | 9.4 |
| Copper ore | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| Total | 100.0 | 100.0 |
|
(a) Commodity weights may not sum to subindex weights due to rounding
Sources: ABARES; ABS; RBA |
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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]