The Australian dollar was basically flat against most of its major peers following the release of policy minutes by the Reserve Bank of Australia and inflation data in China, Australiaâs biggest trading partner.
The RBA released minutes of its October meeting, which did not provide many new insights. The notes were mostly optimistic, stating that the appreciation of the US dollar, while being generally negative to emerging market economies, was helpful to the Australian economy:
This appreciation had raised risks for some economies, particularly the more fragile emerging market economies, but the resultant modest depreciation of the Australian dollar was likely to have been helpful for domestic economic growth.
The RBA reiterated that the next move in interest rates will likely be a hike, not a cut, but it will not happen soon:
Members continued to agree that the next move in the cash rate was more likely to be an increase than a decrease. However, since progress on unemployment and inflation was likely to be gradual, they also agreed there was no strong case for a near-term adjustment in monetary policy.
The National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that the Consumer Price Index rose 2.5% in September from a year ago, accelerating from 2.3% registered in the previous month and reaching the fastest rate of growth in seven months. The Producer Price Index rose 3.6%, decelerating from the 4.1% rate of increase logged in August. Both indicators were within expectations.
AUD/USD was flat at 0.7128 as of 11:47 GMT today. EUR/AUD traded at 1.6246, close to its opening level of 1.6234. AUD/JPY edged up from 79.67 to 79.86.
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