The Australian Dollar tumbled close to a more than five year low against the Pound after the UK currency received a boost from far better-than-expected retail sales data.
Against its other peers the ‘Aussie’ slumped to new lows overnight. Against the US Dollar the ‘Aussie’ slumped to its lowest level since July 2010. Up against its New Zealand Dollar relation the currency weakened to an eight year low. It also resumed its decline against the Euro.
The ‘Aussie’ remains under heavy pressure following the release of employment which showed that employment fell by 22,600 in December, and Full time positions declined by 31,600. The data was far worse than economists had been forecasting. Full time positions were expected to rise by 7500.
The Pound has gained against the majority of its peers after data released by the Office for National Statistics showed that retail sales in the UK leapt by 2.6% in December smashing economist forecasts for a 0.3% gain.
Strong sales at smaller businesses were the driving factor and department stores saw sales climb by 8.7%. On a year by year basis sales soared by 5.3%. Excluding fuel sales the figure rose by 2.8% monthly and 6.1% yearly.
The data suggests that the U.K. economy should expand strongly in the final three months of the year after growing at an annualized pace of 3.2% in the third quarter.
The next major event for the ‘Aussie’ will occur next Monday when China, Australia’s biggest trading partner releases GDP and retail sales data. Disappointing figures from that data are certain to send the ‘Aussie’ down even further.
Current Australian Dollar Exchange (AUD) Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Australian Dollar,
,US Dollar,0.8792 ,
Australian Dollar,,British Pound,0.5344 ,
Australian Dollar,,Euro,0.6465 ,
Australian Dollar,,New Zealand Dollar,1.0642 ,
US Dollar,,Australian Dollar,1.1371 ,
Pound Sterling,,Australian Dollar,1.8706 ,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.5465 ,
[/table]
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