AUD Weaker as Stevens Complains About Exchange Rate

The Australian dollar weakened today a bit after the central bank refrained from additional monetary easing, but complained that the currency is too strong and should depreciate in order to aid economic growth.

The Reserve Bank of Australia maintained its key interest rate at 2.5 percent today. RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said in the statement:

The Australian dollar, while below its level earlier in the year, is still uncomfortably high. A lower level of the exchange rate is likely to be needed to achieve balanced growth in the economy.

As for macroeconomic data, it was rather positive and did not allow the currency to fall much. The Australian Industry Group services index rose 0.8 to 47.9 in October. Tomorrow’s report about trade balance is expected to show a decrease of the deficit.

AUD/USD was down from 0.9508 to 0.9490 as of 16:46 GMT today. AUD/JPY was at 93.54 after opening at 93.74 and falling to 92.96. EUR/AUD traded at 1.4197, near the opening rate of 1.4208.

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