The GBP to AUD exchange rate looks set to slide further against the ever strengthening Australian Dollar and is likely to fall beyond a five-month low if today’s Bank of England Interest rate decision disappoints the markets.
The AUD/USD Exchange Rate also strengthened further to rise to a fresh four-month high. If today’s jobs reports out of the US disappoint then we can expect the ‘Aussie’ to challenge the 95 cents level. The US currency was also weighed down by the release of the minutes for the Federal Reserve’s March policy meeting. The AUD/EUR rate also reached a new four-month high.
The cause of today’s ‘Aussie’ gains was the release of positive domestic data and data showing that China’s trade balance achieved a surplus of $7.7 billion last month, a sharp contrast to February’s $23 billion deficit. The figure was far better than the $0.9 billion that economists were expecting.
China is Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Domestic data meanwhile showed that the number of people in work in Australia increased by 18,100 last month beating economist expectations for a rise of 5,000. The nation’s overall unemployment rate fell to 5.8%.
“The unemployment rate is really key here, and the employment growth figure was solid as well. Clearly the Australian Dollar has benefitted from that,” said Greg Gibbs, head of Asia Pacific market strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc.
Also lending support to the currency was a report released by the Melbourne Institute which showed that inflation expectations for the next year increased to 2.4% in March, up from the 2.1% seen in the previous month.
The Bank of England is due to release it latest interest rate decision. Economists are expecting the Central Bank to leave rates unchanged at the record low level of 0.5% and leave its monthly bond buying amount at £375 billion.
Australian Dollar (AUD) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Australian Dollar,
,US Dollar,0.9436 ,
Australian Dollar,, Pound Sterling,0.5626 ,
Australian Dollar,,Euro,0.6809 ,
Australian Dollar,,New Zealand Dollar,1.0795 ,
[/table]
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