By: Barbara Zigah
Following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s announcement that their policy and rate setting committee decided to hold key interest rates at 4.75%, the Australian Dollar slipped against the U.S. Dollar; as reported at 2:58 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Aussie dropped to $1.0329, a 0.3% decline. With inflationary pressure not quite the problem in Australia as it is elsewhere in the world, the RBA’s decision ha been widely expected by a consensus of economists.
Elsewhere, the Euro held steady just below a 5-month peak versus the U.S. Dollar, as investors reassess their positions ahead of the ECB policy setting meeting to be held later this week. Most analysts expect that the European Central Bank will hike the current rate by 25 basis points to 1.25% in an attempt to stave off inflationary pressures in the Eurozone, driven primarily by higher commodity prices. Analysts are expecting that before year’s en, the ECB will have raised their benchmark rate to 1.75%. So far this year, the Euro has gained better than 6% against the greenback. Earlier, the Euro was trading against the U.S. Dollar at $1.4192. Further gains in the Euro are likely to be limited, given that rate hikes are already factored in.