The Australian dollar rose today after the inflation report surprised Forex market participants positively as consumer prices were rising last quarter faster than was predicted by analysts. The consumer sentiment report, while was not particularly good, was not very bad either.
The Consumer Price Index rose 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. This is compared with the median analysts’ estimate of 0.5 percent and the previous quarter’s growth of 1.2 percent. The Trimmed Mean CPI advanced 0.9 percent, more than in the preceding quarter (0.7 percent) and more than experts have predicted (0.6 percent).
The WestpacâMelbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell by 1.7 percent in January from December. Still, the report was not pessimistic, saying:
The Index remains comfortably in the zone where optimists outnumber pessimists.
AUD/USD was up from 0.8803 to 0.8855 and AUD/JPY advanced from 91.81 to 92.36 as of 2:16 GMT today. EUR/AUD dropped from 1.5397 to 1.5316.
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