The Aussie joins currency wars

The Australian dollar has slipped following the decision of the country's central bank to cut interest rates.

Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), unexpectedly cut its main interest rate this week. The 0.25% reduction to 2.25% was the RBA's first cut since mid-2013, and leaves rates at a record low. The Australian dollar, the Aussie, slipped to 77 US cents, a five-and-a-half-year low.

The RBA is concerned that the economy, which expanded by 2.7% in the year to last September, is slowing more than it initially forecast. Inflation has tumbled below its 2%-3% target band and is set for more falls as transport costs decline.

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Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.