Aussie Rallies on RBA Statement & China’s Data, Unable to Keep Gains

The Australian dollar rallied intraday, lifted by the optimistic outlook for the nation’s economy and positive macroeconomic data from China. Yet the currency was unable to preserve gains, falling to the opening level against some rivals and below it against others by now.
The Reserve Bank of Australia released its Statement on Monetary Policy today. The outlook for the Australian economy, expressed by the central bank, was rather optimistic, though the RBA voiced concern about increasing protectionism, particularly the threat of trade wars between the United States and China. The bank also said that global inflation may pick up faster than previously expected, prompting central banks of developed nations to perform more aggressive tightening, and that can hurt assets of emerging markets. Overall, the statement did little to change the analysts’ policy outlook for the RBA to stand pat at least through 2018.
Meanwhile, the Caixin China General Services PMI edged up to 52.9 in April from 52.3 in March. Forecasters had predicted the index to stay little changed.
AUD/USD was up from 0.7531 to 0.7560 intraday before pulling back to 0.7518 as of 10:47 GMT today. EUR/AUD was at about its opening level of 1.5912 following the drop to the daily low of 1.5862. AUD/JPY opened at 82.23, rallied to the daily high of 82.46, but retreated to 81.96 later.

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