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 3 April 2017. The index will be reweighted according to an average of export values in 2014/15 and 2015/16 (previously 2013/14 and 2014/15). The index will be rebased so that the 2015/16 average is 100 (previously 2014/15).
Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on iron ore (which declined by 4.4 percentage points), the weight on crude oil (which declined by 1.0 percentage point), the weight on gold (which increased by 1.7 percentage points), the weight on liquefied natural gas (LNG; which increased by 1.0 percentage point) and the weight on beef and veal (which increased by 1.0 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 2017 | 1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017 | |
| Rural commodities | 14.7 | 13.4 |
| Wool | 1.5 | 1.3 |
| Beef and veal | 5.1 | 4.1 |
| Wheat | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| Barley | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Canola | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| Sugar | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| Cotton | 0.8 | 1.0 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.6 | 1.4 |
| Base metals | 5.6 | 5.3 |
| Aluminium | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| Lead | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Copper | 2.0 | 1.9 |
| Zinc | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Nickel | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Bulk commodities | 50.5 | 54.4 |
| Iron ore | 29.5 | 33.9 |
| Metallurgical coal | 12.1 | 11.9 |
| Thermal coal | 8.9 | 8.6 |
| Other resources | 29.2 | 26.9 |
| LNG | 9.7 | 8.8 |
| Crude oil | 3.9 | 4.9 |
| Alumina | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Gold | 8.7 | 7.1 |
| Copper ore | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| 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]