The Australian Dollar continues growing. Overview for 14.09.2018

At the end of this week, AUDUSD continues trading upwards; the Chinese statistics were rather mixed.  

The Australian Dollar is keeping positive momentum against the USD. The current quote for the instrument is 0.7193.

The statistics published by China today showed that the Retail Sales expanded by 9.0% y/y in August after adding 8.8% y/y the month before and against the expected reading of +8.8% y/y. The Unemployment Rate in China dropped from 5.1% to 5.0%. Another positive report was the Industrial Production: it increased by 6.1% y/y, more than expected.

The Fixed Asset Investment turned out to be quite controversial: the indicator was 5.3% y/y in August after being 5.5% y/y in the previous month.

Overall, the numbers are better that expected because “trade wars” between the USA and China are escalating, but the Chinese economy managed to minimize this negative factor. No one knows for how long China can live on with these American sanctions, but it is doing a good job so far. The point is that the Chinese authorities decided to focus on internal stimulation instead of “counter attacks”. Of course, the time will show whether it is a good strategy, but right now it seems quite fine.

Remember that the Chinese statistics are very important for the Australian currency as the countries have very close trade and economic relations.