Weights for the TWI

New weights for the trade-weighted index (TWI) of the Australian dollar will apply from 2 December 2013. The weights are based on the country composition of Australia's merchandise goods and services trade for the 2012/13 financial year. The composition of the index has changed slightly, with the Philippine peso replacing the Swedish krona. The regions associated with the 21 currencies in the updated index accounted for around 90 per cent of Australia's trade in 2012/13. Changes in individual currency weights were generally within ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on the Chinese renminbi – which increased by around 1¼ percentage points – and the weight on the Japanese yen – which declined by around ¾ percentage point. Overall, the currency rankings were fairly stable in this update, with the rankings of the top eight currencies remaining unchanged from last year. See ‘TWI – Method of Calculation’ for a description of the methodology used for constructing the TWI.