Aussie Falls as Inflation below Forecast - 24.4.2012

The Australian dollar is one of few currencies which fell under pressure against the US counterpart in Asian trading hours, extending yesterday’s losses. The pair opened at 1.0375 on Monday and dropped to 1.0247 in the morning, touching a two-week low after the Australia’s Bureau of Statistics released CPI data for the first quarter of the year. According to the report consumer prices rose by 0.1% from the last three months of 2011, while the annualized growth pace slowed down from 3.1% to 1.6%. Confirming a decreasing inflationary pressure, secondary price indexes like the RBA trimmed mean and the weighted mean, which do not include the most volatile items and intended to estimate underlying inflation, also decelerated, leaving less doubts about a possible interest rate cut by the central bank as soon as at its next meeting on May 1. The bank is currently holding the overnight market cash rate at 4.25% with inflation target range of 2%-3% over the cycle.