The Australian dollar was weak today, falling for the seventh consecutive trading session against the euro, following the release of employment data in Australia. While the report was not entirely bad, the market preferred to focus on the bad part.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the number of employed people in Australia rose by 42,300 in May from April. That is a far bigger figure than 16,000 predicted by experts. The increase was registered in both part-time and full-time employment. But the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 5.2%, whereas analysts had promised a decrease to 5.1%.
According to specialists, the miss of the unemployment print should add to incentives for the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut interest rates further. The RBA has already lowered borrowing costs just last week.
Released separately, the Melbourne Institute Inflation Expectations in Australia remained at 3.3% in June, unchanged from May.
AUD/USD declined from 0.6927 to 0.6912 as of 12:22 GMT today. EUR/AUD gained from 1.6291 to 1.6362. AUD/JPY edged down from 75.16 to 74.96.
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