Weights for the TWI

New weights for the trade-weighted index (TWI) of the Australian dollar have been compiled by the Reserve Bank and are attached. These weights, which reflect the country composition of Australia's merchandise trade in 2009/10, will apply from 1 October 2010.

There are 21 currencies included in the index for 2010/11. The regions associated with the 21 currencies account for 93 per cent of Australia's merchandise trade.

The order of the top five currencies in the index is unchanged from the previous year. The weight of the Chinese renminbi remains the highest in the index, and has increased by around 4 percentage points from last year. The Japanese yen is ranked second, although its weight decreased by 2 percentage points from last year. The weights on the euro and US dollar each fell by around a ½ percentage point from last year.