Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of iron ore, coal, gas and gold. The RBA's commodity price index tracks what the country earns for them.
Futures prices, such as front-month gold or Brent crude, are the most quoted. Iron ore and coal are mostly priced by contracts and indices published monthly with a lag.
Why it matters
Higher commodity prices lift national income, company profits in the resources sector, tax revenue and usually the Australian dollar. Falling prices do the reverse. The terms of trade, export prices relative to import prices, capture this effect.
See the data: Gold, Brent crude, RBA commodity price index.
General information, not advice.