Commodity currencies up on Chinese economic data

Published: 2 Dec at 9 AM Tags: Euro, Dollar,

Solid factory growth in China during November has given a boost to commodity currencies. Better than expected economic data coming from the world’s second largest economy saw investors buying up New Zealand and Australian dollars.

The kiwi is up 0.5 per cent to $0.8162 and the Aussie has risen 0.2 per cent to $0.9118. Both currencies also advanced on the yen to 83.66 and 93.41 yen. The Japanese currency remains under pressure and last month dropped around 4 per cent against both the euro and the US dollar.

As the Bank of Japan continues its loose monetary policy investors are dumping the yen in favour of riskier assets. After hitting a six-month high on Friday of 102.61 yen the dollar has settled at 102.47 yen. The euro is trading at 139.23 yen.

Traders are now looking to Thursday’s policy meeting at the European Central Bank. The euro is currently little changed against its US counterpart at $1.3587. Other big central banks to hold policy meetings this week are the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank of Canada and Bank of England, although most analysts are not expecting any major changes.

Among key economic data to be released today in Asia are business investment figures for Japan and final figures on China’s manufacturing from HSBC.