RBA misleads investors on Australian dollar

The Australian dollar has dropped sharply in today's Asian trading session on the back of disappointing data and throws into question yesterday's assessment of the local economy from the reserve bank of Australia.

At 3.34pm(AEDT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US75.76c down from US76.09c in yesterday's trading session.

GDP figures released from Australia hit the market earlier today at 0.6 percent against analysts' predictions for a figure of 0.7 percent and was well down from the previous quarters figure of 0.9 percent.

The yearly figure also missed consensus coming in at 0.9 percent against estimations for a figure of 3 percent.

Australian treasurer Mr Morrison brushed off the disappointing figures by noting that the Australian economy was on equal footing with the rest of the world and overall it was a good result

"The solid growth outcome in the September quarter national accounts has accelerated growth from 1.9 per cent to 2.8 per cent through the year," Mr Morrison said.

"This is above the OECD average and puts Australia back up towards the top of the pack for major advanced economies around the world." He added.

Investors were not as upbeat as Mr Morrison and sold the Aussie dollar off accordingly which may be attributed to expectations of a rate hike at the RBA's next board meeting in February has now gone.

The Australian dollar was rightly sold off as it seems the RBA was overly optimistic yesterday on the state of the Australian economy as they would have to overlook several factors in order to lift interest rates such as low inflation and as was already mentioned, underperforming GDP.

These factors should weigh on the Australian dollar and  we may see the currency come under further pressure as the year comes to a close.