Australian consumer prices surged at the fastest annual pace in two decades last quarter as petrol, home building and food costs all climbed, fueling speculation interest rates could rise from record lows as soon as next week.
— Read on www.reuters.com/business/australian-inflation-hits-20-year-high-brings-rate-rises-near-2022-04-27/
Tag: Australia
Australia central banker says rates could stay low until ’24
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s central bank governor says the nation’s benchmark interest rate could remain at a record low until 2024 despite pandemic-induced inflation. The Reserve Bank of Australia board has said it won’t lift the cash rate until inflation settles in a target range of 2%-to-3%, Governor Philip Lowe told a Sydney forum of economists. The “inflation outlook is more uncertain than it has been for some time, but our central scenario is that underlying inflation reaches th
— Read on ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/australia-central-banker-says-rates-052647616.html
Aussie Barrels Toward a Moment of Reckoning at 80 U.S. Cents
(Bloomberg) — Traders have seized on every scrap of good news to push the Australian dollar higher in recent months, leaving it vulnerable to a pull-back as it approaches the key psychological level of 80 U.S. cents.The currency surged almost 10% in 2020 as strategists ratcheted up forecasts for the Aussie on rising commodities prices, a sharper-than-expected economic rebound and local success containing Covid-19.Yet with much of the good news already priced in, the continued gains seen this year are raising red flags on technical charts.Having risen in eight of the last nine weeks, the Aussie is now well into overbought territory on a weekly basis. It is also nearing 78.85 U.S. cents, which marks the 100-month moving average that it hasn’t breached since 2014.On top of this technical resistance, there is also the risk of the iron-ore market topping out and the ongoing damage caused to other exports by the deterioration in Australia’s trade relations with China.The Democrat victories in the U.S. Senate races this week, which have raised the odds of a Biden Administration unleashing more fiscal aid, may already be priced into the market, given with Aussie’s 1% year-to-date advance.In the meantime, U.S. Treasuries offer opportunities not seen for months, with the 10-year yield rising above 1%. Some investors are also exiting short positions in the greenback after the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index approached its February 2018 low.If these hurdles prove too much for the currency and it reverses course, peaks on monthly charts near 74 U.S. cents stand as key support.The Aussie was 0.4% lower at 77.71 U.S. cents at 8:25 a.m. in Sydney on Friday.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
— Read on ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/aussie-barrels-toward-moment-reckoning-212619213.html
Australia’s central bank cuts key interest rate 0.25% to 1%
Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Tuesday to a record low of 1% in a bid to boost the economy. Previously the Reserve Bank of Australia had not shifted the rate in almost three years. “This easing of monetary policy will support
— Read on ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/australian-central-bank-cuts-key-043549258.html
Why World’s Most Enduring Growth Story Is Starting to Wobble
Australia hasn’t recorded two straight quarters of economic contraction since the first half of 1991, meaning it’s just a month away from overtaking the Dutch record and posting 28 years of continuous expansion. With home prices sinking, households swimming in record debt and the escalating U.S.-China
— Read on ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/why-world-apos-most-enduring-140001653.html