Beef boosts commodities price index

A lift in beef prices helped nudge ANZ's commodities price index 0.4 per cent higher last month.

Although world prices for the main export commodities are 2.1 per cent below where they were a year ago, they remain high by historical standards, about 25 per cent higher than their average level through the 1990s.

In New Zealand dollar terms, the rise in July was 0.6 per cent, enough to take the basket of commodity prices to its highest level since early 2002 and 9.1 per cent higher than it was at this time last year.

ANZ economists expect a further weakening in the New Zealand dollar to provide an offsetting influence to slower global growth which would weaken demand.

Prices for beef, aluminium, wool, logs, lamb and venison rose last month while apples, kiwifruit and skins fell.

Beef prices, though 10 per cent off their cyclical peak two years ago, remain 23 per cent above their 20-year average in world price terms and 14 per cent higher in New Zealand dollars.

There is a seasonal lift in the northern hemisphere summer.