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The Australian Dollar rate almost came to a standstill at the Forex currency market on Wednesday: yesterday Australian trading floors were closed and the process of returning back to trades is very sluggish as it is only four days before the New Year.

Forex forecast: MACD indicator for the pair AUD/USD is moving along the signal line in the negative area and is giving a clear signal. Stochastic Oscillator remains in the overbought zone and is giving a buy signal.

Forex recommendations: :  in case of breakdown at the level of 1.0160, the pair will go to 1.0170 ? 1.0190.  If upward breakdown does not take place, there will be a chance of rollback to 1.0120.

It was noted by Australian Central Bankon this week, that the country has been fighting against repercussions of European debt crisis with the help of investment boom: minutes of the last meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia showed that there is no urgent need at the moment in lowering rate and current steps directed to ease monetary policy is sufficient to support economy.

Observers believe that lowering of the rate of RBA in December was just a safeguard against external negative factors.

Consumer sentiment index Westpac-MI fell to 94.7 points, -8.3% m/m in December against the value of 103.4 points in November. Business confidence index NAB in Australia increased to 1 point in November against zero level in October. This data is positive at the moment as current conditions have stabilized; however levels of business confidence are still unvaried. It became known earlier that trade balance in Australia fell to +A$1.60 billion in October against expectations of +A$2.0 billion.

Last week statistics showed that leading indicator index Westpac-MI in Australia increased to 282.2 points (+0.4 points) in October. The data reflects the pace of economic activity in the next 3-9 months; index has increased on monthly basis, however, it went down on annual basis (2.6% against 2.8% earlier). This is a signal that business activity in the country may decline in the coming months.

Unemployment rate increased to 5.3% in November against the forecast of 5.2%.  Employment rate fell by 6 thousand against the growth of 16.8 thousand earlier. The indicator reflects the impact of European debt problems on the Australian economy. Retail sales in Australia increased to the minimum value of +0.2% m/m over 4 months in October. In September the index rose by 0.4%, and by 0.6% in August.

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