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Foreign Exchange Currency Report : GBP AUD Rate Drops Despite Worst Quarterly Fall in Australian GDP For Over 20 Years

June 1, 2011 - Written by John Cameron

The Pound Australian Dollar exchange rate (GBP AUD) is 1.5301. The Pound Euro exchange rate (GBP EUR) is 1.1415. The Pound Dollar exchange rate (GBP USD) is 1.6428.

Yesterday's session saw appetite for risk flood back into global markets, as evidenced by pronounced gains for Asian, European and North American equities markets on the day.

This caused significant upside for the high-yielders and commodity-driven currencies. The one high yielder not to make strides forward was the Australian Dollar, which lost ground on the session, causing the GBP AUD exchange rate to register slight gains, closing up by 0.03% at 1.5412.

This weakening off of the Aussie was attributable to Australian Q1 Trade Figures released during yesterday’s Asian session. These numbers came out worse than expected at AUD10,447bn, showing that Australia’s trade deficit has widened significantly since Q4 of 2010, as the domestic economy struggles to come to terms with the effects of a strong Australian Dollar.

Other data of interest released during yesterday’s Asian session showed that there was no monthly expansion in Australian Private Credit during April. This release raised doubts about the strength of Australia’s economic recovery, placing further pressure on the Aussie.

Meanwhile, Australian growth figures released last night showed a quarterly contraction of 1.2% in Australia’s GDP in the first three months of 2011, which represents the largest quarterly fall in Australian economic activity for 20 years.

The GBP AUD rate has unexpectedly dropped following the release of this growth data to trade down into the low 1.53s, as investors express their relief that the number did not come out even worse.

However, a near-term technical retracement back towards yesterday’s high of 1.5506 can not be ruled out for GBP AUD given the soft nature of this week’s Australian data releases.

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