The Reserve Bank released minutes of its latest policy meeting today. The notes had both good and bad things to mention. It appears that markets paid more attention to the good part as the Australian dollar rose against most of its major peers, with the exception of the euro. With that said, the Aussie struggled to maintain gains.
The RBA expressed a positive outlook for employment, inflation, and household debt. It said that wage inflation seemed to stabilize at low levels and is expected to pick up. At the same time, the central bank stated that “the outlook for household consumption continued to be a significant risk.” As for the currency, the bank said:
An appreciating exchange rate would be expected to result in a slower pick-up in domestic economic activity and inflation than currently forecast.
The Australian dollar was unable to beat the surprisingly strong euro but gained on other most-traded rivals. But by now, the Aussie has retreated from the daily highs and is trading near the opening levels against some of its peers.
AUD/USD was up from 0.7663 to 0.7671 as of 10:43 GMT today, and its daily high was at 0.7683. EUR/AUD gained from 1.5366 to 1.5385. AUD/JPY advanced from 86.24 to 86.40.
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