Russian-Ukraine war catapults commodity prices into stratosphere

The Russian-Ukraine war has catapulted the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) index of commodity prices to its highest ever level.

As shown in the next chart, the commodity price index soared 3.4% in April in SDR (currency-weighted) terms to be up 19.4% over the quarter and by 39.9% year-on-year:

The RBA’s commodity price index in SDR terms has historically closely tracked the nation’s terms-of-trade. Based on this data, the terms-of-trade will rocket when the March quarter national accounts are released in early June.

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.