Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices

Release date:

New weights for the RBA Index of Commodity Prices apply with the release of the index for March on 1 April 2025. The index has been reweighted according to an average of export values in 2022/23 and 2023/24 (previously 2021/22 and 2022/23). The index has been rebased so that the 2023/24 average is 100 (previously 2022/23).

The largest changes to weights were a 1.4 percentage point decrease in the weight on metallurgical coal, a 1.1 percentage point increase in the weight on gold and a 0.9 percentage point decrease in the weight on thermal coal.

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.

Weights for the Index of Commodity Prices
Per cent
Weight(a)
From 1 April 2025 2 April 2024 - 31 March 2025
Rural commodities 10.6 10.2
Wool 0.6 0.7
Beef and veal 2.5 2.3
Wheat 2.9 3.1
Barley 0.7 0.7
Canola 1.1 1.2
Sugar 0.6 0.5
Cotton 1.0 0.8
Lamb and mutton 1.0 1.0
Base metals 3.0 2.9
Aluminium 1.2 1.2
Lead 0.2 0.2
Copper 1.2 1.1
Zinc 0.4 0.4
Bulk commodities 53.0 54.6
Iron ore 28.8 28.1
Metallurgical coal 12.8 14.2
Thermal coal 11.4 12.3
Other resources 33.4 32.3
LNG 17.8 17.9
Crude oil 2.7 2.9
Alumina 1.8 1.9
Gold 6.3 5.2
Copper ore 1.5 1.7
Lithium (Spodumene) 3.3 2.7
Total 100.0 100.0
(a) Commodity weights may not sum to subindex weights due to rounding

Sources: ABARES; ABS; RBA
Graph: RBA Index of Commodity Prices

Endnotes

Note that ‘Changes to the RBA Index of Commodity Prices: 2013’ refers to average export values of 2010/11 and 2011/12 and is based using 2011/12 average is 100. [1]