Published: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:04:14 +0100

Aussie Dollar Weaker Against Majors

(CEP News) - The Aussie dollar is weaker against majors on Thursday after a bout of lower tier economic data for the region and comments from Chinese officials, who remain vague about promises of more stimulus.

Australia posted a A$970 million trade surplus in January, against forecasts for a A$1.1 billion surplus and previous A$598 million reading in December. The Aussie dollar is down 1 cent at 0.6395 USD.

Australian building approvals fell 3.7% month-over-month in January, despite forecasts for a smaller 1.0% gain and deeper than the 2.9% decline in December.

Elsewhere in the world, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to deliver 8% GDP growth in 2009, but made no mention of further stimulus plans as had been widely expected.

Data taken at 7:52 a.m. EST,

The euro was up 0.0127 to 1.9618 against the Australian dollar.

The Australian dollar was down 0.0091 to 0.6405 against the greenback.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.0067 to 1.2159 against the Australian dollar.

The Australian dollar was down 0.7950 to 63.605 against the yen.

The Australian dollar was up 0.0037 to 1.2817 against the New Zealand dollar.

By Erik Kevin Franco, efranco@economicnews.ca, edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca