AUDJPY continues to struggle around 94.00 despite solid Aussie jobs data

The AUDJPY pair has stayed firm around 94.00 despite the release of bullish Australian employment data. Compared to the projected 15k and the preceding release of 0.9k, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announces that the economy has added 32,200 new jobs to the payroll market. In addition, the unemployment rate has decreased from 3.6% to 3.5% to 3.4%.

Australian employment numbers that surpass expectations will impress the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). This will allow RBA Governor Philip Lowe to continue steadily hiking rates. In light of this week's release of the RBA's minutes, the central bank will maintain a rate hike structure of 25 basis points (bps) because policymakers believe the Official Cash Rate (OCR) has already been hiked in a short amount of time.

Nevertheless, the inflation rate has not yet reached its high, as a historic increase in price growth observed in the third quarter indicates. The Australian inflation rate increased to 7.3%, exceeding the consensus expectation of 7.0%. This prompted the RBA to hike its projected interest rate to 8%. In addition to producing increasing price pressures, a limited market is responsible for the robust purchasing power of households.

As Russia-Poland tensions have largely calmed and no further developments are anticipated, the risk profile is expected to diminish.

On the Tokyo front, an unexpected decline in Gross Domestic Product is haunting investors. In contrast to expectations of a 0.3% increase, Japan's gross domestic product decreased 0.3% in the third quarter. We were surprised by the q/q decline in the third quarter because we underestimated the impact of higher inflation, the summer wave of COVID-19 infections, and a significant weakening of the yen, which exacerbated the nation's already soaring import costs.