Commodity price index floats back to earth

Thursday 2 June 2022

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) index of commodity prices fell 2.0% in May in SDR (currency-weighted) terms from the prior month’s record high:

However, over the May quarter commodity prices surged 8.2% over the quarter and 30.4% year-on-year in SDR terms.

The RBA’s commodity price index in SDR terms has historically closely tracked the nation’s terms-of-trade, which hit a record high in the March quarter:

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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.