The Australian dollar extended its gains as several economists moved forward their forecasts for a Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate increase, anticipating a hike at the central bank's meeting next week.
The AUD/USD pair rose 0.4% to 0.7148.
Westpac and National Australia Bank now project that the RBA will raise interest rates at its meetings in March and May. This follows similar moves by Deutsche Bank and UBS Group, which also brought forward their rate hike expectations to the March meeting after a hawkish speech from an Australian official on Tuesday.
Current swap transactions indicate a 74% probability of an RBA rate hike on March 17.
Comments