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 2026. The index has been reweighted according to an average of export values in 2023/24 and 2024/25 (previously 2022/23 and 2023/24). The index has been rebased so that the 2024/25 average is 100 (previously 2023/24).
Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than 1 percentage point, with the exception of the weight on gold (which increased by 3.4 percentage points), iron ore (which increased by 2.1 percentage points), thermal coal (which decreased by 2.9 percentage points), lithium (which decreased by 1.6 percentage points), liquefied natural gas (which declined by 1.5 percentage points), and the weight on metallurgical coal (which declined by 1.4 percentage points). Nickel was included back into the index – having been excluded since March 2023 – as its share of the value of commodity exports increased to around 0.1 per cent.
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 1 April 2026 | 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026 | |
| Rural commodities | 11.1 | 10.6 |
| Wool | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Beef and veal | 3.5 | 2.5 |
| Wheat | 2.3 | 2.9 |
| Barley | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Canola | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Sugar | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Cotton | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.3 | 1.0 |
| Base metals | 3.6 | 3.0 |
| Aluminium | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Lead | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Copper | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Zinc | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Nickel | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| Bulk commodities | 50.8 | 53.0 |
| Iron ore | 30.9 | 28.8 |
| Metallurgical coal | 11.4 | 12.8 |
| Thermal coal | 8.5 | 11.4 |
| Other resources | 34.5 | 33.4 |
| LNG | 16.3 | 17.8 |
| Crude oil | 2.6 | 2.7 |
| Alumina | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| Gold | 9.8 | 6.3 |
| Copper ore | 1.6 | 1.5 |
| Lithium (Spodumene) | 1.7 | 3.3 |
| 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]