There is an abundance of economic data still be to be released this week, however very little of it is directly linked to the domestic currency. With that said though, the data is still likely to impact upon the strength of the AUD. It may provide an opportunity for the Aussie to capitalise if the international data results are considered weak. Alternatively, we may see a continuation of the trend that we have seen over the past week, which has been a slight decline to the Aussie.
Yesterday evening we saw the release of GDP figures out of the UK which was a near miss. The economic forecast of 3.2% growth year on year was posted at 3.1%. Although it was still a strong result for the UK economy, it caused little movement to the AUD-GBP currency pairing as it was very close to expectations. The inflation figures announced out of Germany last night were the more surprising result. The Consumer Price Index figures were lower than expected and give economists an insight into what the Euro-Zone CPI figures will be tonight. The Aussie gained close to half a percent against the Euro overnight in response to these figures. Germany is also set to announce their Unemployment Change figure and their Unemployment Rate this evening.
The back half of the week is appearing very Greenback focused, with GDP figures kicking off the release of US data this evening. This will be followed by the Fed meeting early Thursday morning. The all important Change in Nonfarm Payrolls and Unemployment Rate will round off the week Friday night. Much of the figures to be released out of the States this week have been tipped to strengthen the US Dollar. The Change in Nonfarm Payrolls is expected to increase, while the Unemployment Rate is expected to decrease from 6.7% to 6.6%. Whether the US will achieve their targeted rates or not is yet to be seen, however, it is expected that if the economic forecasts are accurate than we can expect to see the Greenback strengthen in the lead up to the weekend.
The Aussie is set to see much of its data released next week, but for the next few days it appears as though it must await the release of US data to determine its’ short term direction against the USD.