No plans to weaken soaring Aussie dollar

Source: AFP, 24 February 2012

Australian central bank governor Glenn Stevens said Friday he has no plans to intervene to weaken a soaring Aussie dollar, which has hit some local industries hard, particularly manufacturing. The "Aussie" has surged in recent years on the back of Australia's commodities boom and relatively high interest rates, trading near or above parity with the greenback for more than 12 months.

But it has hurt trade-exposed sectors with steelmakers and the auto sector shedding jobs in a bid to stay afloat. Canberra sees a strong currency as the new norm and Stevens said the bank did not intend to enter into a Swiss-style intervention of putting a cap on the currency, at least not yet. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the strong dollar, which was trading Friday at 107.30 US cents, was making the economy leaner and stronger.