The US Dollar fell against the Pound and slumped to a one-week low against the Euro on Friday after disappointing nonfarm payrolls data reignited concerns over the state of the recovery in the USA’s job market.
According to the Washington based Labour Department, the number of new jobs added in January came to 113,000 far less than the expected figure of 185,000. The nation’s private sector meanwhile added 142,000 jobs which were also under the expected figure for a rise of 185,000.
On a brighter note the overall unemployment rate fell to 6.6% last month, down from the 6.7% recorded in December. Economists had been expecting the rate to stay unchanged.
The US Dollar’s softness is likely to be relatively short-lived as economists believe that the figures aren’t enough to detract the US Federal Reserve from continuing to cut back its monthly bond buying programme.
“There’s some initial selloff in the Dollar, downside may prove limited as I don’t think its weak enough to alter the Fed’s monetary policy. The numbers are bad, but not disastrous. There’ll be plenty of room for why it came under expectation, such as the weather,” said a chief market analyst in Washington.
The US has been hit by a severe winter which has disrupted large parts of the country.
The losses sustained against the Euro were limited however; as official data earlier showed that German industrial production fell 0.6% in December, confounding expectations for a 0.5% increase, after an upwardly revised 2.4% gain the previous month.
Against the Canadian Dollar the ‘Greenback’ fell after a Canadian unemployment report showed that the North American nation added more jobs than forecast. The nation’s overall unemployment rate also fell to 7%.
US Dollar (USD) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
US Dollar,
,Pound Sterling,0.6101 ,
US Dollar,,Euro,0.7357,
US Dollar,,Canadian Dollar,1.0992 ,
US Dollar ,,Australian Dollar,1.1171 ,
[/table]
Comments are closed.