The Australian dollar has risen sharply today, breaking back through the US72c mark on the back of better than expected GDP data. At 7.55am (GMT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US72.29c up from US71.73 cents in yesterday’s trade.
Quarterly GDP figures released overnight from Australia came in at 0.6 percent against analysts’ expectations of a 0.5 percent rise.
The yearly figure faired even better hitting the market at 3.0 percent against a consensus of a 2.6 percent rise.
The news is likely to dent expectations of an interest rate cut which many analysts had been predicting at some stage this year.
It now seems that the Australian economy is finally starting to transition away from the mining boom and into sectors such as tourism and services, but many would like to see more good news from the land down under before jumping to conclusions.
Tomorrow the market will await import, export and trade balance figures from Australia which may confirm the Australian economy is really on the road to recovery. A disappointing figure is likely to see the Australian dollar give up today’s gains.
