The Australian dollar fell on Thursday and was one of the weakest currencies on the Forex market during the trading session. While domestic macroeconomic data was decent for the most part, poor reports from China and risk aversion on markets dragged the currency down.
China’s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 49.2 in February from 49.5 in January, moving further away from the neutral 50.0 level. Economists had expected it to stay unchanged. The non-manufacturing PMI fell to 54.3 from 54.7, below the forecast figure of 54.5.
As for domestic data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that private capital expenditure climbed 2.0% in the December quarter from the previous three months, exceeding the average forecast of a 0.8% increase. The Reserve Bank of Australia reported that private sector credit rose 0.2% in December, while economists had hoped for a faster growth by 0.3%. The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index advanced from 52.5 in January to 54.0 in February, rising further above the 50.0 level of no-growth.
AUD/USD dropped from 0.7134 to 0.7098 as of 22:48 GMT today after rallying to the daily high of 0.7167 earlier. EUR/AUD gained from 1.5926 to 1.6012, bouncing from the daily low of 1.5877. AUD/JPY opened at 79.19, rallied to the session high of 79.47, but retreated to 79.08 later.
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