The Australian dollar declined today on Forex during the Asian trading session after the report on home-loans showed a massive decline in the sector and the consumer sentiment index dropped to its lowest level since 1992.
The Aussie (a nickname for the Australian currency) declined against all other major currencies including the U.S. dollar, the yen and the New Zealand dollar today. Traders were giving up their last hope that the countrys central bank will go for at least one interest rate increase by the end of the year.
The report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that the residential home-loans declined 7.9 percent in May. Experts expected only 2 percent drop and such a fast decline is a very bad signal for the Australian economy and currency.
The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment fell 6.7 percent in July — from 84.7 to 79.0. Now the index stands at its 16-year lowest value. This unexpected fall followed a 5.6% decline last month. The most probable explanation for such a sharp fall in the index this month could be high oil and gas prices.
AUD/USD declined from 0.9532 to 0.9519 today as of 11:07 GMT, the daily minimum was at 0.9475. AUD/JPY went down from 102.38 to 102.20 with daily minimum at 101.78. AUD/NZD shows the largest daily drop since June 12 — from 1.2664 to 1.2609, with a daily low at 1.2585.
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