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Foreign Exchange
Australian Dollar's Drop May Point to Slowing Economy (Update2)
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Australia's dollar is heading for its first loss in four years, a decline that may point to slowing growth in the world's largest economies, say some of the currency market's biggest investors.
``The Australian dollar is a proxy for global growth,'' said Paresh Upadhyaya, a currency portfolio manager who helps oversee $29 billion at Putnam Investments in Boston. ``My concern is of a more precipitous decline in the Australian dollar under the scenario of faltering global growth.''
The currency fell 5.4 percent this year to 73.82 U.S. cents at 3:46 p.m. in Sydney. It will weaken 10 percent to 66.50 cents next year, according to the median forecast of the nation's four biggest banks.
Australia's currency is a barometer for global economic health because the nation is the world's largest supplier of coal, iron-ore and nickel. The local dollar hasn't suffered an annual loss since 2001, when the three largest economies, the U.S., Japan and Germany, stagnated.
World economic growth will slow to 4.3 percent this year and next, down from a 30-year high of 5.1 percent in 2004, the International Monetary Fund forecast in September.
Upadhyaya began accumulating Australian dollars three years ago in anticipation of faster global expansion. The currency rose 44 percent against the U.S. dollar since then and may weaken to 70 cents by early next year, he said. Upadhyaya's now selling the Australian dollar.
Predicting Changes
Fluctuations in the Australian dollar have signaled changes in the direction of the world economy. It began weakening in the first quarter of 1997, on course for an 18.1 percent annual drop. By the end of that year, most of Asia, including Japan, fell into recession. The slowdown spread to Germany the next year, when the economy struggled to grow.
Australia's currency began rallying in the fourth quarter of 1998 and extended the gains through the first half of 1999, when growth in the major economies picked up. World economic growth accelerated to 3.7 percent in 1999 from 2.8 percent in 1998, the slowest in five years, according to the IMF.
The Goldman Sachs Commodity Total Return index lost 13 percent this quarter, the most since 1998, suggesting a drop in demand for Australia's exports.
``Australia's dollar is obviously growth sensitive and the market won't muck around in pricing it down when commodity prices fall,'' said Sean Callow, a currency strategist in Singapore at Westpac Banking Corp., Australia's fourth-biggest bank.
`Significant Fall'
The IMF predicts Australia's economy will expand 2.2 percent in 2005 after growing 3.2 percent last year.
Westpac's Commodity Metals Futures Price Index, which measures demand for the copper, alumina, nickel, zinc and lead that Australia exports, may drop about 13 percent next year, Callow said. The index held at a record 141.82 on Nov. 23 and has doubled since the end of 2001.
``We are not talking about a collapse next year or a recession, but we are predicting a pretty significant fall in prices,'' said Callow.
Prices for coking coal, used to make steel, may drop 28 percent in the next two years after reaching a record $125 a ton this year, John Bridges, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, wrote in a Nov. 8 report. Australia produces more than any other country.
`Commodity Story'
Australia is also the world's largest producer of iron ore and No. 4 in copper. Iron ore jumped almost 50 percent to a record $55.50 a ton this year, while copper traded at a record $4,243 a ton on Nov. 18 and Nov. 21 and has gained 29 percent this year.
Demand from China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, led the increase. Copper extended gains on speculation China's government doesn't have enough metal to make good on wrong-way bets by one of its traders.
``The global growth and commodity story is still supportive for the Australian dollar so that will keep it from falling much,'' said Greg Gibbs, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets Ltd. in Sydney. He forecasts the currency will buy 75 U.S. cents in three months and 76 cents in six months.
Some investors are selling the Australian dollar as the extra yield they get from the nation's government bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries shrinks, said Kumar Palghat, a fund manager in Sydney at Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world's largest bond fund.
The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark rate at 5.5 percent since March as retail sales and employment fell. The U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates by 3 percentage points since June 2004 to 4 percent.
Australian's dollar rose as high as 73.93 cents on Nov. 23 after minutes of the Fed's meeting this month showed some policy makers were worried about the risk of raising the rate too much.
`Screaming Sell'
Two-year Australian government bonds yielded 77 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries on Nov. 14, the narrowest gap in four years. The difference shrank from 1.98 percentage points at the start of the year and is below the 1.7 percentage points average of the past two years.
``The Australian dollar isn't a screaming buy, but a screaming sell,'' said Palghat, who helps manage the equivalent of $10.2 billion for Pimco, a unit of Munich-based Allianz AG. ``I'm reluctant to buy the Australian dollar purely for the fact that the interest-rate differential between the U.S. and Australia is going to narrow.'' Pimco is based in Newport Beach, California.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Young in Sydney at
cyoung12@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 23, 2005 23:49 EST