Australia’s dollar struck a ten-year low against U.S. currency last week, dropping another 0.8 percent in one day after new figures showed unemployment edging up.
The Aussie is down 15 percent against the U.S. dollar in the past two years, now worth US$0.65 compared to US$0.78 in January 2018.
Australia’s two economic bedrocks are commodity exports and trade with China. Recent massive wildfires across the country have curtailed mining and resource harvesting and have destroyed infrastructure and other assets.
And China’s economic slowdown, which has been exacerbated by the spreading coronavirus fears, will prove deadly to sectors of the Australian economy.
Before The Reserve Bank of Australia reduced interest rates today by a quarter percentage point to a record-low 0.50 percent after the coronavirus began to choke key exports, including foreign education and tourism, Australia’s central bank had cut interest rates three times in 2019 to spur its sinking economy.
