Chinese Data Gives Aussie Lift

During Monday’s Asian trading session, news that Chinese growth expectations were met helped to ease investors’ concerns of an economic slowdown there which gave the Aussie Dollar a much needed reason to edge higher. The data showed that GDP slowed from 7.7% in the first quarter to 7.5% in the second, generally in line with analysts’ forecasts but there had been some speculation that the numbers could be far worse given last week’s dismal trade figures. Other data released at the same time was mixed, with only retail sales beating market expectations.

As reported at 1:07 p.m. (JST) in Tokyo, the AUD/USD pair had been trading at a session high of $0.9110 before slipping to $0.9097, still a gain of 0.5% from late trade in New York on Friday. Last week the pair had lost some 90 pips after the trade data had been released, and though the Chinese economy does weigh heavily on the Aussie Dollar the country’s AAA credit rating and high interest rates relative to the rest of the developed world continue to provide support for the currency. The AUD/JPY pair was trading at 90.4626, edging up from a session low of 89.9127 but holding close to the day’s peak of 90.5128.