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 2 April 2024. The index has been reweighted according to an average of export values in 2021/22 and 2022/23 (previously 2020/21 and 2021/22). The index has been rebased so that the 2022/23 average is 100 (previously 2021/22).
Lithium (Spodumene) was added to the index because its share of the value of commodity exports has increased materially in recent years. The weight for lithium is sourced from ABS goods export data using the trade category ‘Lithium concentrates’.
Notable changes to weights include the (newly added) weight on lithium (2.7 per cent), a 10.6 percentage point decline in the weight on iron ore, a 4.1 percentage point increase in the weight on liquified natural gas, and a 3.8 percentage point increase in the weight on thermal coal.
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.
| Weight(a) | ||
|---|---|---|
| From 2 April 2024 | 1 April 2023 - 1 April 2024 | |
| Rural commodities | 10.2 | 9.4 |
| Wool | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Beef and veal | 2.3 | 2.5 |
| Wheat | 3.1 | 2.5 |
| Barley | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Canola | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Sugar | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Cotton | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.0 | 1.1 |
| Base metals | 2.9 | 3.2 |
| Aluminium | 1.2 | 1.3 |
| Lead | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Copper | 1.1 | 1.2 |
| Zinc | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Bulk commodities | 54.6 | 59.6 |
| Iron ore | 28.1 | 38.7 |
| Metallurgical coal | 14.2 | 12.4 |
| Thermal Coal | 12.3 | 8.5 |
| Other resources | 32.3 | 27.8 |
| LNG | 17.9 | 13.8 |
| Crude Oil | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| Alumina | 1.9 | 2.5 |
| Gold | 5.2 | 6.7 |
| Copper Ore | 1.7 | 2.1 |
| Lithium (Spodumene; new) | 2.7 | 0.0 |
| 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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Endnotes
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]