The ANZ Commodity Price Index fell for a third straight month in August, following nine consecutive months of rises, led by milk powder, logs and aluminium.
ANZ said the index fell 1.2% in August to 304.3 and is now down 2.5% over the past three months.
Twice as many commodity prices fell as rose in August, the bank said, representing the broadest range of commodities to fall since August 2010.
Milk powder, logs and aluminium led the drop, with each falling 6%. Wool, butter and skin prices dropped 4%, lamb prices 2%, and the price of cheese and sawn timber fell 1 %.
Prices for fruit, beef, seafood and venison rose with wood, pulp and casein prices unchanged.
ANZ said the price of milk powders have now fallen 16% since March, with whole milk powder down 18% and skim milk powder down 8%. Log and aluminium prices have both dropped 11% since respective peaks in May and April.
Meanwhile, ANZ said a month-on-month decline in the value of the kiwi dollar buffered the commodity price fall, resulting in the New Zealand dollar commodity price Index being unchanged at 200.3 in August. The main index is in US dollars.
(Updated with chart, link to Terms of Trade article)
ANZ commodity price index
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20 Comments
Well while I wouldn't like to see commodity prices keep on declining, coming back a bit is a good thing. They can't keep on going up for ever, there just simply isn't a reason for them to do so when the global economy is so flat (excluding the BRICS) and demand is muted.
Hopefully this will take some of the pressure off the kiwi, interest rates and home grown inflation notwithstanding Wolly's comments above.
Greens party will stop all minings so Aluminium will be too expensive to make into cans, can't do plastic either 'cos the dolphins will eat it by mistake, nor paper as no-one is allowed to cut down trees. So you just have to give up beers
But smoking pot is allowed though
Gummy's gonna made a fortune out of his tree-bamboo . 20 metres tall , with 30 cm internodal lengths ...... perfect material for sustainable beer " can " production ! ..
...... and the ruddy stuff regenerates forever ..... can't lose ... . can not lose , this time ...
Bamboo beer , buddy ? ... . bloody brilliant ! ..... and bamboo bongs for the Greenies' green !
Yup ! ... dropped me Gummy britches and measured the bamboo poles up against the Gummy pole , as you do under the circumstances , when no ruler is at hand .. 30 cm , or 300 mm if you prefer ...
... dats normal for a Cantabrian lad , Wolly ..... ahem ..
Yeah , right !
This reminds of that joke where one asks the question and the answers to both replies are equally cruel, either, "Oh really, strange, because you act like a complete ....", or "Thought so, because you act like a complete ..."
Anyway, back to bed, a rather wobbly 4.9 by the looks of it, yawn.
The greens support for recycling would allow us to still have beer even after the price of mined resources pushes these commodities out of reach for there current uses, controls on water means the beer wont be tainted with nitrates plus at 10c for 1000 litres its hardly gonna break the bank for the breweries, and hops in beer are the closest plant genetically to cannabis, who would have thought?
The war on drugs has been the most unsuccesful war ever raged.....billions and billions spent 'fighting' it for nought. This war hasn't been won anywhere and never will be..
I aint no pot smoking hippy...but seems to me the Greens have this one right.
Prohabition didn't work with alcohol...all its achieving with drugs is money to drug barrons and turning those with mental helath issues (the druggies) into crims.
Legalise the lot.....call the war off.
The ANZ Commodity index is still above 2007 levels.. the peak of the world real estate bubble. It seems like the bull market in commodities has not ended.
With the Index so high, and the high NZD bringing down the price of imports for producers (machinery etc) ... you'd think that we've never had it so good....
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