By: Barbara Zigah
China’s Flash PMI data for February showed a surprising contraction, an event which pushed the Australian Dollar lower against the U.S. Dollar. As reported at 1:30 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the Australian Dollar was trading at $1.0383, a 0.7% decline and the lowest point in nearly 2-months. Ahead of the data release, the AUD/USD pair was trading at $1.044.
While a slowdown China is unwelcome news for the rest of the globe, no where is it more keenly felt than in Australia which is a key trading partner. Thus far in March, the Aussie Dollar has already lost 4% off its value relative to the U.S. Dollar; it also struck this year’s low against the Euro, trading at 1.2738 and the 5th straight day of losses.
The Euro is back on an uptrend against the U.S. Dollar, following a slide overnight as investors sold off the EUR/USD pair on fresh fears of Eurozone peripheral debt issues, this time from Spain. The Euro was last trading higher against the greenback, at $1.3232, a gain of 0.1%. Recently, the Spanish government announced that it would not be meeting the budget targets that it had previously agreed to.
Aussie Dollar Falls Hard on China Data
After working on Wall Street, Barb began her second career as a freelance writer at Daily Forex, where the CEO recognized fresh, untapped potential and was willing to give her a try. She’s never looked back. Since then, she’s worked steadily as a freelance writer and editor in the financial services and Forex-related industry.