The statistics publish by Australia this morning put pressure on the AUD/USD pair.
The Australian Dollar plummeted against the USD on Thursday morning. The current quote for the instrument is 0.7830.
The decline was caused by the statistics published by Australia. The Retail Sales lost 0.6% m/m in August after decreasing by 0.2% m/m in July and against the expected reading of +0.3% m/m. the most significant decline was in department stores. At the same time, such categories as clothing and footwear (+0.5%) and restaurants and takeaway (+0.1%) improved. The food products remained unchanged. We should also note that the durable goods fell as well (-0.1%).
Knowing that the indicators combines retail sales in a lot of categories, we may say that there is a short-term decline in consumption. This fact seems rather surprising taking into account a quite stable employment market and a growing tendency in salaries.
Apart from this, it’s spring in Australia right now, which is pretty favorable time of the year for the retail trading. It means that consumers are quite sure about the economic outlook and prefer saving money instead of spending it. It may also add some long-term risks to the stable growth of the country’s economy.
Later in the afternoon, investors will be focused on the USD, which is really back to strengthening against other traded currencies. It means more pressure for the Aussie.
RoboForex Analytical Department