The Australian dollar, paired with the US dollar, has halted its decline. The current AUDUSD exchange rate stands at 0.6486.
This morning, Australia released employment market statistics, which turned out to be relatively weak. Such data confirms fairly soft expectations for the country’s monetary policy outlook.
The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in January. Employment increased by a mere 500 jobs, while economists projected an increase of 30,000 jobs.
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to reduce the interest rate by 40 basis points this year, with the first move in August. Michelle Bullock, the RBA’s governor, had previously noted that it was necessary to first bring inflation down to 2.5% before deciding on the interest rate.
For now, the Aussie remains under pressure from the strong US dollar.