The Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) today announced the official adoption and launch of the inaugural publication of the BPNG International Commodity Price Index (BPNG-ICPI).

The BPNG-ICPI is a weighted average of selected international commodity prices and serves as a benchmark for tracking price movements.

According to BPNG, the ICPI is a tool that tracks and measures the average price changes of a basket of raw materials and primary goods traded globally, such as oil and gas, metals, and agricultural commodities. 

BPNG Governor Elizabeth Genia said this index will help guide the Bank in its monetary policy decisions.  

“The introduction of the ICPI marks a critical step forward in PNG’s financial sector reforms,” said Elizabeth Genia, Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea.

“By capturing a localised basket of major international commodity price metrics, the Bank is better positioned to calibrate its monetary policy deliberations and anticipate shifts in foreign exchange inflows”.

The BPNG-ICPI reflects the international prices of the major commodities exported by Papua New Guinea. It consists of the following sectors: 

• Non-mineral Index: cocoa, coffee, copra, copra oil, palm oil, tea and logs 
• Mining Index: gold, copper, nickel and cobalt 
• Oil & Gas Index: crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG)

This benchmark provides enhanced visibility into the basket of international prices of Papua New Guinea’s core export commodities for the non-mineral and mineral sectors, including oil and gas export sectors.

Key Baseline Findings:

• Overall Index Performance (year-on-year): The overall benchmark index recorded a 17.5% increase over the twelve months to June 2026 in USD terms, led by higher prices for gold, copper, nickel and cobalt in the mining index, followed by crude oil and LNG in the oil & gas index. The overall index has increased by 24.9 per cent in PNG kina terms. 
• The BPNG-ICPI rise was driven by a surge in international prices for all commodities in the mining (27.2%), and Oil & Gas (7.0%) indices, which offset a decline in the non-mineral (-11.6%) index. The index highlights a major shift toward high-value critical minerals.
• On a monthly basis, preliminary estimates for June 2026 indicate that the overall ICPI declined by 5.9 percent in USD terms, after declining by 4.7 percent in May. The outcome was due to a decline in the non-mineral, mining and oil & gas sectors. In PNG kina terms, the index declined by 5.4 per cent in June. 

BPNG intends to conduct regular review and update of its ICPI, in the March quarter of each year, to effectively track and maintain the significance of export commodities. A full review including the commodities included in the ICPI basket will be calculated every five years to determine their relevance. 

The complete data tables and charts, and the methodological note on the calculation of the BPNG-ICPI are available on the Bank’s official website.