Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices
New weights for the RBA Index of Commodity Prices apply with the release of the index for March on 1 April 2021. The index has been reweighted according to an average of export values in 2018/19 and 2019/20 (previously 2017/18 and 2018/19). The index has been rebased so that the 2019/20 average is 100 (previously 2018/19).
Changes to individual commodity weights were generally less than ½ percentage point, with the exception of the weight on iron ore (which increased by 4.4 percentage points), the weight on liquefied natural gas (LNG; which increased by 1.2 percentage points), the weight on metallurgical coal (which decreased by 2.3 percentage points), the weight on thermal coal (which decreased by 1.4 percentage points) and the weight on alumina (which decreased by 0.5 percentage points).
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] The list of data sources used in constructing the Index of Commodity Prices has been updated. Please refer to Sources of the Price Measures Used in the ICP for further information.
Details are in the attached table and graph.
| Weight(a) | ||
|---|---|---|
| From 1 April 2021 | 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021 | |
| Rural commodities | 9.3 | 10.5 |
| Wool | 1.1 | 1.5 |
| Beef and veal | 3.6 | 3.4 |
| Wheat | 1.3 | 1.6 |
| Barley | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Canola | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Sugar | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| Cotton | 0.6 | 0.9 |
| Lamb and mutton | 1.4 | 1.4 |
| Base metals | 4.0 | 4.3 |
| Aluminium | 1.4 | 1.6 |
| Lead | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Copper | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Zinc | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Nickel | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Bulk commodities | 53.3 | 52.6 |
| Iron ore | 31.5 | 27.1 |
| Metallurgical coal | 13.7 | 16.0 |
| Thermal coal | 8.1 | 9.5 |
| Other resources | 33.4 | 32.6 |
| LNG | 17.0 | 15.8 |
| Crude oil | 3.0 | 2.9 |
| Alumina | 3.5 | 4.1 |
| Gold | 7.6 | 7.5 |
| Copper ore | 2.2 | 2.3 |
| 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 in ‘Changes to the RBA Index of Commodity Prices: 2013’ the ICP is weighted according to an average of export values in 2010/11 and 2011/12 and indexed so that the 2011/12 average is 100. [1]