As 2017 came to an end, the Aussie dollar stood at 1.0980 against its Kiwi counterpart. As soon as the New Year began, it managed to edge up from that to reach 1.1000. Was this an early and positive omen, or simply one good day and nothing more?
It seemed the latter was true, because by the time that week had ended, the Aussie currency had dipped to 1.0960. That meant it already had some work to do to get back into a more promising position. Unfortunately, the following week didn’t bode well for the Australian currency, as it dipped further to 1.0849. If we fast forward through the remainder of the month, we learn there was better news to come, however. By the end of January, the Aussie dollar had managed to edge back to 1.0941 – still lower than the opening rate for the month, but not a bad outcome.
Unfortunately, it didn’t manage to build on that as February progressed. Instead, it ended up dipping to 1.0810, and there seemed to be little good news on the horizon, either. By Monday 19th March, the Australian currency had fallen further, seemingly with no end in sight. The Kiwi dollar had pushed it back to 1.0670 by this point, so there was a chance we might end up with worse news still to come. Clearly, the onus was on the Kiwi dollar to do better, but how long this would last was anyone’s guess.
The remainder of March saw the Australian dollar hanging around the same exchange rate, before falling to 1.0584 on the 28th. It managed to gain nearly a cent by the next day, although by Friday 6th April, the exchange rate was back down to 1.0596. It turned out we were not far from the lowest rate seen so far this year, which occurred on 12th April. The Australian dollar dipped as low as 1.0507 then, although we were not to know it would begin to gain ground after that.
By the end of that month, the dollar had pushed back against the Kiwi dollar, rising to 1.0706 in the process. While it did fall back into the 1.06 region shortly afterwards, it regained a rate of 1.0806 on 10th May and has failed to fall below that since then. This is good news, and perhaps bodes well for the future, although we have no idea what the rest of the year might bring.
At the time of writing, the Australian dollar closed out 30th May with a rate of 1.0828 against the Kiwi dollar. Perhaps this will be maintained as we head into June, but the first part of the year has certainly not been without its difficulties.