Export commodity prices fell to a 17-month low in May.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) index of commodity prices was 1.9 per cent lower in foreign currency terms in May, after falling by 2.6 per cent in April.
The price index is measured in terms of special drawing rights (SDRs), an average of four major currencies - the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, and British pound.
The SDR index had risen by 256 per cent between the end of 2003 and the peak in July 2011, but has since fallen in fits and starts to be down by 10.6 per cent from the high and at its lowest level since January 2011.
The RBA said the largest contributors to the fall in May were lower prices for oil, gold and iron ore, although the prices of base metals and a range of rural commodities fell too.
In terms of Australian dollars, the index rose by 0.9 per cent in May, but was still 18.8 per cent down from the peak, which for the Australian dollar index came in October 2008.
Compared with the end of 2003, just before the commodity price boom got going, the Australian dollar-valued index in May 2012 was up by 146 per cent.
That was much less than the 219 per cent rise for the SDR index over the same interval, as the rising exchange rate reduced the rise in price in Australian dollar terms.
