Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices
New weights for the RBA Index of Commodity Prices will apply with the release of the index for March on 1 April 2015. The index will be reweighted according to an average of export values in 2012/13 and 2013/14 (previously 2011/12 and 2012/13). The index will be rebased so that the 2013/14 average is 100 (previously 2012/13).
Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on metallurgical coal (which declined by 2¼ percentage points), the weight on iron ore (which increased by 2½ percentage points) and the weight on LNG (which increased by 1 percentage point).
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.
| Weight | ||
|---|---|---|
| From 1 April 2015 | 1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015 | |
| Rural commodities | 12.6 | 12.2 |
| Wool | 1.2 | 1.3 |
| Beef and veal | 3.0 | 2.6 |
| Wheat | 3.4 | 3.5 |
| Barley | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Canola | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| Sugar | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Cotton | 1.3 | 1.5 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| Base metals | 5.1 | 5.2 |
| Aluminium | 2.0 | 2.1 |
| Lead | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Copper | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Zinc | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Nickel | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Bulk commodities | 55.5 | 55.6 |
| Iron ore | 34.7 | 32.2 |
| Metallurgical coal | 12.1 | 14.4 |
| Thermal coal | 8.7 | 9.0 |
| Other resources | 26.8 | 27.0 |
| LNG | 8.1 | 7.1 |
| Crude oil | 5.3 | 5.6 |
| Alumina | 3.1 | 2.9 |
| Gold | 7.6 | 8.4 |
| Copper ore | 2.8 | 2.9 |
| Total | 100.0 | 100.0 |
|
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]