The Australian dollar was steady today, during Asian trade hours, despite the latest miss with Chinese trade data.
All numbers are in Chinese yuan denomination (CNY). The Chinese September trade balance came in at CNY193 billion. This number well below the expected CNY266 billion as well as the August number which came in at CNY286.5 billion. The trade surplus for China came in at $29 billion. However, the actual Dollar terms number(s) will be released later. Exports were up by 9 percent annually. This was less than expected. Chinese imports rose by 19.5 percent. This number was well above the forecasted 16.5 percent.
This data is put together and released by China’s customs service. The agency stated that the fourth quarter’s trade outlook is clouded by global instability and a high degree of uncertainty.
The Aussie Dollar ignores Chinese Data
The Australian dollar usually acts like the liquid proxy of China. China is the largest regional importer of Australia’s raw goods. Usually, the numbers are more impactful when data from China disappoints.
This was seen earlier this week when a worse than expected Chinese service sector purchasing managers’ (PMI) data sent the benchmark AUD/USD lower. However, this Forex market was pretty stable on the trade figures. The Aussie dollar has seen a good week for the bulls. Higher Chinese imports may be seen as good news for Australia despite that lower overall surplus. Regionally, China is Australia’s largest goods market
However, the Federal Reserve looks to be on course to continue to tighten monetary policy again this year. The Reserve Bank of Australia is unlikely to that for some time. This means that the overall strength, in this Forex market, remains skewed toward the US dollar.