AUSTRALIA’S export commodity prices fell in June, the third monthly fall in a row, following a run of three rises.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s index of commodity prices fell by 4.1 per cent in the month in foreign currency terms.
Commodity prices peaked in July 2011 and are now down by 23 per cent from that high.
Despite the recent falls, commodity prices are still 194 per cent higher than 10 years ago as the commodities boom was about to begin in earnest.
The RBA said the main contributors to the fall in June were iron ore, gold and coal, the same culprits as in May.
Although the central bank said the prices of many rural commodities and base metals fell as well, as they also did in May.
A comment by the RBA suggests more declines are on the way for the index of prices.
“As indicated in previous releases, preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal and thermal coal export prices are being used for recent months, based on market information.
“Using spot prices (current market prices rather than previously agreed prices) for these commodities, the index declined by 6.2 per cent in June in SDR terms, to be 14.2 per cent lower over the past year,” the RBA said.
The foreign currency price index is measured in terms of special drawing rights (SDRs), an average of four major currencies – US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, and British pound. – AAP