Though markets are still awaiting the official monetary decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia, they received a bit of good news from the RBA Governor as he addressed the Australian Parliament earlier today. Phil Lowe said that he anticipated that the Aussie economy would soon reach a positive turning point, albeit strengthening was expected gradually. Nonetheless, Lowe did not foresee any imminent shift of sentiment from the committee, with low rates remaining at existing levels for an extended time.
As reported at 9:36 am (JST) in Tokyo, the AUD/USD was trading higher at $0.6810, a gain of 0.3166%; the pair has ranged from $0.67875 to $0.68164. The NZD/USD was trading at $0.6485, up 0.1529%, and off the earlier peak of $0.64910.
Japan GDP Better than Expected
The Japanese Cabinet Office released preliminary 2nd quarter GDP numbers a short while ago, and reported that growth at 0.4% on a quarterly basis exceeded analysts' expectations of a fall to 0.1% from 0.6%. On an annualized basis, GDP for the second quarter was at 1.8%, worse than the previous 2.2% but above the predicted decline to 0.4%. The USD/JPY pair was trading at 105.9270 Yen, up 0.0850%.