Index of Commodity Prices (SDR terms) in Australia

The RBA's Index of Commodity Prices tracks the prices of Australia's main export commodities (iron ore, thermal and coking coal, LNG, gold, lithium and rural products). It is expressed in SDR terms (the IMF's Special Drawing Rights), which insulates the index from the swings of any single currency.

The RBA weights the export prices of Australia's key commodities, using preliminary estimates for iron ore, coal and LNG based on the month's market prices, and publishes the index and its year-on-year change in SDR, A$ and US$ terms (statistical table I2).

Australia is a major commodity exporter: a sustained rise in the index improves the terms of trade, national income and the trade balance, and tends to support the Australian dollar. A fall signals weakening global demand, particularly from China, for iron ore and coal.

The latest month's figures are preliminary estimates for the key components (iron ore, coal, LNG) and are revised later; the index is heavily concentrated in a few commodities and very sensitive to Chinese demand.