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Dollar stays below 92

Nov 25, 2013

The Australian dollar is still below 92 US cents as expectations the US Federal Reserve will taper its economic stimulus program weighs on the currency.

Early Monday, the local unit was trading at 91.78 US cents, almost level with 91.79 cents on Friday.

Early on Saturday morning, Australian time, the Australian dollar dropped to 91.44 US cents, its weakest level since September 6.

The Federal Reserve last week said it expected economic data in the coming months to improve enough to begin winding back its $US85 billion-a-month bond purchase program.

Since then, the US dollar has rallied against most of the major currency, which has put downward pressure on the Australian dollar.

Adding to the Australian dollar’s woes was Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens’ comment that he had an open mind on intervening to push the currency lower.

Intervention in the foreign exchange market would involve selling Australian dollars to buy foreign currency.

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BK Asset Management managing director Kathy Lien said these factors pushed the Australian dollar more than two per cent lower last week.

“This has been a terrible week for the commodity currencies,” she said.

“The Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars were hit hard by weaker economic data, US dollar strength and, in some cases, talk of foreign exchange intervention.”

The next focus for currency markets will be a speech by RBA deputy governor Philip Lowe to a University of New South Wales Conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

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