Index of Commodity Prices July 2015

Preliminary estimates for July indicate that the index fell by 5.0 per cent (on a monthly average basis) in SDR terms, after rising by 1.5 per cent in June (revised). The largest contributors to the decline in July were the prices of iron ore and coking coal. The base metals and rural commodities subindices both fell in the month. In Australian dollar terms, the index declined by 1.7 per cent in July.

Over the past year, the index has fallen by 20.2 per cent in SDR terms, led by declines in the prices of bulk commodities. The index has fallen by 8.5 per cent in Australian dollar terms over the past year.

Consistent with previous releases, preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal and thermal coal export prices are being used for the most recent months, based on market information. Using spot prices for these commodities, the index fell by 6.8 per cent in July in SDR terms, to be 23 per cent lower over the past year.

For further details regarding the construction of the index, please refer to ‘Changes to the RBA Index of Commodity Prices: 2013’ in the March 2013 issue of the Bulletin and ‘Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices’ (April 2015).