The Australian dollar slumped against virtually all of its major rivals today even though domestic macroeconomic data was supportive for Australia’s currency for the most part.
The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index climbed from 56.2 in December to 58.7 in January. The Import Price Index rose by 2.0% in the December quarter from the previous three months after falling by 1.6% in the September quarter. The Index of Commodity Prices declined 0.6% in January from a year ago, but the decline was much smaller than the drop by 6.0% registered in December.
The only really negative indicator were building approvals. The number of dwelling units approved slumped by a whopping 20.0% versus the median forecast of a 7.9% decline.
AUD/USD dropped from 0.8054 to 0.8000 as of 13:28 GMT today. EUR/AUD rallied 1% from 1.5406 to 1.5566. AUD/JPY declined from 87.93 to 87.66 after rising to 88.11 earlier.
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