The Reserve Bank of Australia published its April Index of Commodity Prices, with preliminary estimates showing the index fell 0.5 per cent on a monthly average basis in SDR terms after a 3.5 per cent increase in March. Rural and non-rural subindices declined over the month, while the base metals subindex increased. In Australian dollar terms, the index fell 0.8 per cent in April. Over the past year, the index increased 15.7 per cent in SDR terms and 4.6 per cent in Australian dollar terms. Higher rural commodity and base metal prices more than offset declines in liquefied natural gas and alumina. For the most recent months, the release uses preliminary estimates for iron ore, coking coal, thermal coal and LNG export prices based on market information. On a spot price basis for the bulk commodities index, the index fell 0.6 per cent in April in SDR terms but remained 16.9 per cent higher than a year earlier.