The Australian Dollar edged noticeably higher, gaining about 0.5% against the U.S. Dollar, after the release of Chinese growth figures offered at least some relief from ongoing jitters over global growth. While the third quarter figures from China didn’t entirely dispel those concerns as they were a decline from second quarter numbers, they were not as bad as had been expected and sufficiently positive to lift sentiment among commodity linked currencies.
As reported at 7:42 a.m. (BDT) in London, the AUD/USD was trading at $0.8804, a gain of 0.2% and edging away from a session high of $.08826. The NZD/USD was also higher, trading at $0.7987, down from the session peak of $0.8016.
Global Growth Still Worrying
Analysts don’t believe that the relief rally were be enduring as FX traders will wait to see stronger or clearer signs that the slowdown is abating. However, as the world’s second largest economy, the news that growth in China fell only to 7.3% (YoY) rather than 7.2% is helping to quell some concerns. Also beating expectations was China’s industrial output figure which showed 8.0% growth against analysts’ consensus of 7.5% for the quarter. Despite the growth figures, investors will wait to see what decision the Federal Reserve Bank takes, with speculation growing that until global growth shows a marked and continuous improvement the Fed is unlikely to consider a rate hike any time soon.