What it is
The currency of Australia, a large exporter of iron ore, coal, natural gas and farm produce. It is traded far more widely than the size of the economy alone would suggest.
Who issues it
The Reserve Bank of Australia issues the Australian dollar and sets the cash rate target.
How it is commonly described
- Commodity-linked
- Issued by an economy whose exports are led by raw materials, so it is often read beside their prices.
- Risk-sensitive
- Commonly rises when investors are confident and falls when they are cautious.
Raw materials lead Australia’s exports, and much of what it sells goes to China and the rest of Asia. The currency is therefore often read beside commodity prices and beside the general mood of world markets.
These are descriptions people use, drawn from how the currency has commonly behaved. They are not promises about how it will behave.
What typically moves it
- Prices of Australia’s main exports, iron ore, coal and natural gas among them
- Demand from China and the rest of Asia
- Reserve Bank of Australia policy, and the gap between Australian and US interest rates
- Risk appetite in world markets
These are the things people who follow this currency usually watch. They explain how the market works; they do not say what the exchange rate will do next.
The scheduled releases to know
- Monetary policy decision and the Statement on Monetary PolicyPublished by Reserve Bank of AustraliaExplainer: Rates
- Labour Force (employment and unemployment)Published by Australian Bureau of StatisticsExplainer: Jobless rate
- Consumer Price IndexPublished by Australian Bureau of StatisticsExplainer: CPI
- National Accounts (Gross Domestic Product)Published by Australian Bureau of StatisticsExplainer: GDP
- Chinese activity data, read for Australian exportsPublished by National Bureau of Statistics of China
No dates or figures are shown here: each publisher’s own calendar is the authority. The explainers are in Economic Events; a release without a link has no explainer on this site yet.
Its main session
Sydney. Australian data arrive in the Sydney morning, early in the Asia-Pacific day, with Chinese releases a little later. The currency keeps trading through London and New York.
At GIO4X
GIO4X lists one currency pair that contains the Australian dollar. Each pair’s contract and published conditions are on its instrument page, where they are labelled as indicative. They are not repeated here.
A short history
The Australian dollar replaced the Australian pound on 14 February 1966, when the country moved to decimal currency. It was floated in December 1983. In 1988 Australia issued the first banknote printed on polymer and not on paper, and all of its notes have been polymer since the 1990s.
Words worth knowing
A reference page. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. It gives no exchange rate, no interest rate and no forecast.