BLBG:Australia Dollar Declines Against Major Peers on Risk Aversion
The Australian dollar fell with crude oil and stocks after a U.S. official said the Federal Reserve’s new bond-buying program likely won’t boost economic growth, fueling an investor shift from higher-risk assets.
The Aussie dropped against all of its 16 most-traded counterparts as Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said that economic research indicates additional asset purchases are “unlikely to reduce long-term interest rates by a significant amount” and that lowering rates “by a few more basis points” won’t spur growth and hiring. The New Zealand dollar fell versus its U.S. peer amid speculation a political clash in Spain may impede attempts to resolve the region’s debt crisis.
The Australian dollar is “down on global growth concerns,” Camilla Sutton, head of currency strategy at Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, said in a note to clients. “The problem from here is growth but equally important is global central-bank policy.”
Australia’s currency fell 0.4 percent to $1.0387 yesterday in New York after earlier gaining as much as 0.4 percent. It decreased 0.4 percent to 80.82 yen.
The so-called kiwi declined 0.2 percent to 82.16 U.S. cents after rising as much as 0.7 percent. It fell 0.2 percent to 63.93 yen.
The Aussie has weakened 1.8 percent in the past month, the worst performance among 10 currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. New Zealand’s currency fell 0.2 over the same period. The U.S. dollar dropped 1.7 percent, the second-largest decline, while the euro’s 1.8 increase led gainers.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Dmitrieva in New York at edmitrieva1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dave Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net
