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 2018. The index will be reweighted according to an average of export values in 2015/16 and 2016/17 (previously 2014/15 and 2015/16). The index will be rebased so that the 2016/17 average is 100 (previously 2015/16).
Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on metallurgical coal (which increased by 2.6 percentage points), the weight on gold (which increased by 0.7 percentage points), the weight on liquefied natural gas (LNG; which increased by 0.6 percentage points), the weight on beef and veal (which declined by 0.9 percentage points) and the weight on crude oil (which declined by 1.1 percentage points); nickel was removed from the index as it accounted for less than ⅕ per cent of the value of commodity exports in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
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 and graph.
| Weight(a) | ||
|---|---|---|
| From 1 April 2018 | 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018 | |
| Rural commodities | 13.7 | 14.7 |
| Wool | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Beef and veal | 4.1 | 5.1 |
| Wheat | 3.0 | 3.1 |
| Barley | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Canola | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Sugar | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| Cotton | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.4 | 1.6 |
| Base metals | 4.8 | 5.6 |
| Aluminium | 1.8 | 2.2 |
| Lead | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Copper | 1.8 | 2.0 |
| Zinc | 0.7 | 0.6 |
| Nickel | na | 0.2 |
| Bulk commodities | 52.7 | 50.5 |
| Iron ore | 29.2 | 29.5 |
| Metallurgical coal | 14.6 | 12.1 |
| Thermal coal | 8.9 | 8.9 |
| Other resources | 28.7 | 29.2 |
| LNG | 10.3 | 9.7 |
| Crude oil | 2.7 | 3.9 |
| Alumina | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| Gold | 9.4 | 8.7 |
| Copper ore | 2.5 | 2.9 |
| 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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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]