RBA Commodity Price Index in Australia

The RBA Commodity Price Index measures the aggregate movement in the export prices of Australia's commodities (iron ore, coal, liquefied natural gas, lithium and rural products), expressed in Special Drawing Rights (SDR).

It is published monthly by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) as an index weighted by each commodity's share of exports. It is released in IMF SDR terms (and also in Australian dollars), as year-on-year and month-on-month changes.

It anticipates moves in Australia's terms of trade and trade balance and, indirectly, in the Australian dollar, which is closely tied to commodity prices. A sustained rise tends to support the currency and export earnings.

The most recent data are preliminary and revised month by month (iron ore, coking coal, LNG...) as actual prices settle. The index captures export prices, not volumes, and depends on the prevailing weights.