RBA wants AUD to weaken further

Since mid-2012 the Australian economy has gained almost 18% in price competitiveness against its trade partners. That is not enough for the RBA. In the minutes of its last meeting it continues to point out that the AUD weakness remains unusually low. Nothing new for the market, it is used to the Australian central bankers' tone. As a result the reaction in AUD-USD to the publication of the minutes was muted. 

Now AUD-USD is even trading at levels last seen during the crisis year 2009. Though the Australian dollar is weaker and touched a 6-month low, the RBA left its policy rate unchanged at a record low of 2% in July. Moreover, Governor Stevens wants the AUD to weaken further.

According to Commerzbank, "It nonetheless seems as if the RBA would like to blame exchange rate moves for everything. In particular as the speed of AUD weakness was not low either during the past few years. If one aims to rescue every weak quarter (and Q2/2015 probably did not live up to the RBA's expectations) with currency depreciation things are not going to work out. The chain of effects is too slow and imprecise. And in the end the RBA does not have the correct tools at present to control AUD exchange rates sufficiently effectively."