The Australian dollar recovered today after yesterday’s drop caused by Australia’s central bank. Macroeconomic data, both domestic and Chinese, was the major cause for the currency’s rally today.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that retail sales grew 0.8% in February from January, seasonally adjusted. That is more than two times the forecast increase by 0.3%. The seasonally adjusted trade balance widened to A$4.8 billion in February from A$4.35 billion in January instead of narrowing to A$3.71 billion as analysts had predicted. The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Services Index rose from 44.5 to 44.8 in March.
Meanwhile, China’s service sector expanded as well, beating expectations. On top of that, reports that the United States and China are close to a positive conclusion of their trade negotiations provided additional boost to the Aussie, as well as to other riskier currencies.
The Reserve Bank of Australia released a monetary policy statement yesterday. While the RBA held its main interest rate at 1.5%, as was widely expected, market participants were worried that the central bank changed its wording, suggesting that its policy decisions will be data-dependent:
Taking account of the available information, the Board judged that it was appropriate to hold the stance of policy unchanged at this meeting. The Board will continue to monitor developments and set monetary policy to support sustainable growth in the economy and achieve the inflation target over time.
AUD/USD rallied from 0.7070 to 0.7121 as of 10:29 GMT today. EUR/AUD dropped from 1.5842 to 1.5790. AUD/JPY climbed from 78.70 to 79.37.
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