Despite the mind-numbingly parochial Australian press and its narrative that the Australian dollar is trading as a safe haven amid global chaos, the truth is quite different as the Aussie underperforms against the majority of other commodity currencies with whom we compete:
Since the Aussie battler troughed earlier this year it has fallen by -14%+ against the Brazilian real and -5% against the South African rand. Both of theses helps our iron ore producers a lot in the market share battle. Alas, we have risen by 9% versus the Chinese yuan helping them a lot! Against the Indian rupee we’re also up but its iron ore exports are quota based anyway.
In gas, the Aussie has tumbled against the Russian ruble by -10%, is down -3% against the Loonie, though has risen 8% against the USD-pegged Qatari rial.
That is no safe haven, thankfully.
