The Australian dollar was little changed today even as the business confidence of Australian firms deteriorated. Moreover, the Aussie gained on currencies perceived to be safe, like the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc.
National Australia Bank reported that the business confidence index dropped 12 in July to 5 in August, falling below the long-run average. As for factors considered to be the most important for the drop, the report explained:
For those indicating deterioration in confidence, the biggest concerns appear to be customer demand, government policy, as well as cost pressures â both energy and wages.
The data was not entirely bad, though, as the business conditions index improved from 14 to 15 — the highest level sine early 2008.
AUD/USD traded near its opening level of 0.8026 as of 14:40 GMT today. AUD/JPY gained from 87.80 to 88.19, bouncing from the daily low of 87.47.
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