“Australia’s dollar fell to the lowest this year after data showed the nation’s retail sales unexpectedly dropped for a third month, adding to prospects the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates next month.
The so-called Aussie slid against all of its major peers after the central bank left the cash-rate at a half-century low yesterday and said the inflation outlook “would afford scope to ease policy further.” New Zealand’s dollar touched the strongest since July 2010 versus its Australian peer after Auckland-based Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd., said whole-milk powder prices rose and before a report that may show the smaller nation’s jobless rate fell.
“Retail numbers came in on the weak side,” said Callum Henderson, the Singapore-based global head of currency research at Standard Chartered Plc. “While the RBA is on hold, that set of data is likely to add to expectations for further easing later this year.”
The Aussie declined 0.3 percent to $1.0356 at 5:26 p.m. in Sydney and touched $1.0342, the lowest since Dec. 25. It slid 0.2 percent to 97.11 yen, after touching 97.44 yesterday, the highest since August 2008. It declined 0.3 percent to NZ$1.2263, after reaching NZ$1.2247, the lowest since July 2010.
New Zealand’s kiwi dollar bought 84.45 U.S. cents from 84.53 yesterday. It touched 79.42 yen, the highest since July 2008, before trading 0.1 percent higher at 79.19.
Retail Sales
Retail sales in Australia fell 0.2 percent in December from the previous month, capping their longest stretch of declines in 13 years, the statistics bureau said in Sydney today. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for 0.3 percent growth….”
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