Export Price Index QoQ

The Export Price Index (EPI) measures price change for physical goods shipped from Australia each quarter. It is the export half of International Trade Price Indexes, Australia (ITPI), while the Import Price Index (IPI) covers imports. Published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), it includes re-exports shipped out without physical change. It tracks a fixed basket, not export values, volumes, services, domestic prices or the National Accounts export deflator.

It covers quarters ending March, June, September and December on a 2011-12 reference base of 100.0, and the export price series runs from 1901. It serves as a National Accounts deflator, a short-term inflation gauge, and a reference for contracts and policy.

Prices relate to the quarter goods physically leave Australia, and pricing points spread across the 13 weeks. Most items are priced once per quarter, volatile products monthly or daily and stable ones less often.

Release comes at 11:30am Canberra time about four weeks after quarter-end and no later than 33 days after it, alongside import prices. Tables cover time series, contributions and goods and industry splits, all in original terms with no seasonal adjustment, while datasets follow in Data Explorer. Financial years average the quarters, indexes are revised only for errors or method improvements, and short-term moves confirm no trend.

Weights below show the illustrative September quarter 2021 pattern, refreshed each September quarter, with heavy resource weight.

• Metalliferous ores and metal scrap, 44.35%: captures iron ore and alumina moves and is the largest single division.
• Coal, coke and briquettes, 11.16%: captures thermal and metallurgical coal prices.
• Gas, natural and manufactured, 10.28%: covers liquefied natural gas (LNG) and manufactured gas, partly tied to oil contracts.
• Gold, non-monetary, 6.14%: reflects safe-haven demand moves.
• Food and live animals, 9.58%: covers meat at 3.71%, cereals at 1.98% and sugars.
• Manufactured goods by material, 4.21%: holds non-ferrous metals, and remaining sections sit under 5%.

The June quarter 2022 release, published July 28, 2022, put All groups at 190.4, up 10.1% on the quarter and 38.7% through the year. Coal, coke and briquettes rose 31.6% on Russia-Ukraine supply disruption and adverse weather, with gas up 4.5% and ores up 2.3%. Through the year coal jumped 270.9% and gas 105.4%, showing the index weight in fuels and metals. The same release revised March quarter 2022 coal and LNG after a gap between the index and the export deflator.

1. Basket selection: Items are chosen by export values averaged over two prior financial years, and minor items fold into priced peers. A fast riser can use one year only.
2. Price collection: Collectors reprice the same specified product each quarter for goods leaving Australia, valued free on board at main Australian ports. Foreign prices convert to Australian dollars at market rates with no forward cover, using unit values for uniform goods. Prices come from major exporters under non-probability sampling with no stated panel size.
3. Weight updating and linking: Values are price-updated to June link prices, then September indexes on new weights join June levels. The reference base stays 2011-12 at 100.0.
4. Lowe formula: The index averages price relatives with fixed quantities, and quarterly change equals the gap over the prior quarter times 100.0.
5. Quality and gaps: Quality shifts are stripped out, and missing prices are imputed from matched peers or carried forward with no sales.
6. Worked change: For June quarter 2022, 190.4 less 173.0 equals 17.4 points, or 10.1%. A 200 US dollar sale is 266.67 Australian dollars at 0.75 but 250.00 at 0.80, down 6.25%.