Media Release Trade-weighted Index

New weights for the trade-weighted index (TWI) of the Australian dollar have been compiled and are reported in the table below. These weights, which reflect the composition of Australia's two-way merchandise trade in 2008/09, will apply from 1 October 2009.

Weights in the Trade-weighted Index

Per cent

Currency	Trade weight
	2009/10	2008/09
Chinese renminbi	18.5621	16.3672
Japanese yen	17.1230	15.4040
European euro	10.4411	11.6517
United States dollar	8.9794	9.8797
South Korean won	6.2613	5.7786
United Kingdom pound sterling	4.9916	4.7535
Singapore dollar	4.6111	5.2102
Indian rupee	4.2608	3.0844
Thai baht	3.8159	3.8019
New Zealand dollar	3.7914	4.6565
New Taiwan dollar	2.9741	2.9903
Malaysian ringgit	2.9284	3.2705
Indonesian rupiah	2.2685	2.4053
Vietnamese dong	1.3672	1.9640
United Arab Emirates dirham	1.3446	1.5930
Papua New Guinea kina	1.1229	1.2341
Hong Kong dollar	1.1207	1.1934
Canadian dollar	0.9619	1.0786
South African rand	0.8056	1.1040
Saudi Arabian riyal	0.7743	0.8916
Swiss franc	0.7631	0.8685
Swedish krona	0.7310	0.8190

The number and composition of the 22 currencies included in the index are unchanged from the previous year. These currencies account for 93.2 per cent of Australia's two-way merchandise trade.

The weight of the Chinese renminbi remains the highest in the index, and has increased by around 2 percentage points from last year. The Japanese yen is ranked second and its weight also increased by almost 2 percentage points from last year. The weights on both the euro and US dollar fell by 1 percentage point from last year.

The combined weight of the Asian-Pacific currencies, excluding Japan, increased to 53.1 per cent while the combined weights of the North American and European currencies fell to 9.9 per cent and 16.9 per cent respectively.