By Tracy Withers Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand's commodity export price index slumped to an 18-month low in October led by beef, aluminum and wool, ANZ National Bank Ltd. said. The index fell 7.4 percent from September when it dropped a revised 5.1 percent, ANZ said in a report released in Wellington today. Prices plunged 11 percent from a year earlier. Slowing global demand is putting pressure on commodity prices, which have tumbled 15 percent since July 31, threatening to curb New Zealand exports, which make up 30 percent of the economy. The decline in overseas sales has been cushioned by the New Zealand dollar's 23 percent fall the past three months. ``New Zealand's commodity prices will not be immune to global developments,'' ANZ economists said in the report. Still ``currency weakness is acting as an important buffer.'' In October, the New Zealand dollar was weaker against the currencies of all its major trading partners, resulting in a 0.7 percent gain in commodity prices in local dollars, ANZ said. From a year earlier, prices in local dollars rose 8.2 percent. Prices for nine of 13 commodities tracked by ANZ fell, led by an 18 percent slump in beef prices. Three rose and one was unchanged. Prices for dairy products, which make up a fifth of all exports, declined 9.9 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Tracy Withers in Wellington at twithers@bloomberg.net.

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