Australian dollar update - 17/10/2012

[John from Moneycorp]

Hi all – please find an overview of Australian dollar over the last week, thanks.

 

To say the Aussie was the week's best performer is to exaggerate the scale of its achievement. In fact it strengthened by a cent and a half against the pound, rebounding by 1% from a three-month low. As much as anything the Australian dollar's recovery was a technical reaction to its earlier -7.5% fall.

 

The Australian economic data helped the Aussie moved higher. Business confidence improved by three points from -3 to zero while consumer confidence in October was 1% higher than in the previous month. Also helpful, though not unreservedly so, were the employment numbers for September. The good part was the 14.5k increase in the number of people in work, nearly four times as many as investors had bargained for. The bad part was the simultaneous rise in the unemployment rate from 5.1% to 5.4%. The combination puzzled investors but they eventually decided it was positive for the AUD.

[John from Moneycorp]

The Australian dollar has strengthened slightly.

 

This is due to news from China with positive data released (their GDP figures) – these figures were better than expected and have eased concerns over a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

[John from Moneycorp]

The Australian dollar has strengthened against the pound following Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released - figures were better than expected therefore this has made the Aussie stronger against the £.

 

All eyes are on the UK’s GDP figures which are being released tomorrow – these figures will show if the double-dip recession is over.