Australia Hikes Rates; How about the Carry Trade?
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Following up on my last post , I want to use this post to write about the long side of the carry trade- specifically the Australian Dollar. The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) observed in a recent report that, “The role of short-term interest rate differentials in both the deprecations and their reversal has grown over time.” When you consider that the benchmark interest rate in Australia is now 4% and that interest rates in every other industrialized country (including Japan) or close to 0%, it’s not hard to connect the dots. Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised the benchmark by .25% for the fourth time since it began tightening. In an accompanying press release , the RBA stated that…

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