The Australian Dollar has slipped to a three-year low against the US Dollar and a number of its most traded peers, including Sterling after Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens said that he expects the currency to devalue further.
Speaking after yesterdays RBA decision to maintain the nation’s interest rates at the record low level of 2.75% Stevens said that he was surprised by the continuing resilience of the ‘Aussie’. His comments sent the currency plummeting to as low as $0.9081 against the US Dollar.
“The RBA always says the Australian dollar is still high. It’s true, I think,” said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.
“Probably the $0.9000 level is not so strange, considering Australian fundamentals of weaker investment in natural resource industries, weak retail sales, and weak Chinese growth. It’s very hard to find good points to boost the Aussie dollar right now,” Murata said.
The Australian currency has suffered from speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon begin to taper its monetary easing policy. As the US Dollar strengthened the ‘Aussie’ suffered from a broad sell off.
The currency was not helped following a mixed bag of economic data for the country. Australia’s trade surplus in May was ten-times more than economist expectations. Retail sales data came in weaker-than-expected.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, consumer spending increased by 0.1%, economists had been expecting a rise of 0.3%. Sales of clothing and footwear increased but spending in cafes and restaurants declined by 0.6%.
Current Australian Dollar (AUD) Exchange Rates
The Australian Dollar/US Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.9076
The Australian Dollar/Euro Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.7017
The Australian Dollar/Pound Sterling Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.5986
The Euro/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.4250
The New Zealand Dollar/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 0.8521
The US Dollar/Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.1017
The Pound Sterling /Australian Dollar Exchange Rate is currently in the region of: 1.6703
Correct as of 09:45 am GMT
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