The Australian currency behaved basically similarly to its New Zealand counterpart today, falling during the Asian session after the release of macroeconomic data from China but rebounding by now. The currency also fell following the release of the Monetary Policy Statement by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the home loans report.
The RBA was cautiously optimistic in its statement. The central bank left its forecasts for economic growth and inflation in 2018 unchanged. At the same time, the forecast for the unemployment rate was revised lower from 5.5% to 5.25%. As for the exchange rate, the RBA said:
An appreciating exchange rate would be expected to dampen domestic growth and inflation.
Released separately by Australian Bureau of Statistics, the report about home loans showed a drop by 2.3% in December from November (seasonally adjusted) that followed the 1.6% gain in the previous reporting period. That was double the forecast drop of 1.1%.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7787 as of 12:04 GMT today after opening at 0.7780 and falling to the daily low of 0.7761. AUD/JPY gained from 84.62 to 84.87. EUR/AUD declined from the open of 1.5736 to 1.5702 following the rally to 1.5783.
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