We had data from Australia earlier:
- Australian Q4 2022 GDP 0.5% q/q (expected +0.8%)
- Australian monthly CPI (January) 7.4% (expected 8.1%)
It sent the Australian dollar briefly under 0.6700:
There was a little optimism that the data showed inflation may have peaked. And that may well be true. But the two measures of it today:
- 9.1% in the deflator
- and 7.4% in the monthly
are still way, way above the top limit of the Reserve Bank of Australia 2 to 3% target band. Any thoughts that the RBA would soon pivot to dovish were misplaced. There is still much work to be done. The cash rate is still lagging far behind the CPI rate. As is the RBA website (the latest monthly CPI is 7.4%, not 8.4%):
AUD/USD is circa 0.6730 as I post.