Weights for the TWI

New weights for the trade-weighted index (TWI) of the Australian dollar will apply from 1 December 2014. The weights are based on the composition of Australia's merchandise goods and services trade for the 2013/14 financial year. The composition of the index has changed slightly, with the South African rand no longer included. The regions associated with the 20 currencies in the updated index accounted for around 90 per cent of Australia's trade in 2013/14. Changes in individual currency weights were generally well within +/- 1 percentage point. However, the Chinese renminbi was the key exception, with its weight increasing by around 3 percentage points. Overall, the currency rankings were fairly stable in this update, with the rankings of the top six currencies remaining unchanged from last year. See ‘TWI – Method of Calculation’ for a description of the methodology used to construct the TWI.