AUD/JPY trades close to 16-month high near 103.20 ahead of RBA's policy

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The AUD/JPY pair demonstrates strength near a fresh 16-month high around 103.20 during the European trading session on Monday. The cross trades firmly as the Australian Dollar (AUD) outperforms its peers ahead of the monetary policy announcement by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday.

AUD/JPY exhibits strength near 103.20 due to continuous outperformance from the Australian Dollar.
The RBA is expected to hold its OCR steady at 3.6% on Tuesday.
Revised Japan Q3 GDP figures have shown that the economy contracted at a faster pace.

Australian Dollar Price This Month

The table below shows the percentage change of Australian Dollar (AUD) against listed major currencies this month. Australian Dollar was the strongest against the Swiss Franc.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		-0.49%	-0.62%	-0.45%	-1.15%	-1.39%	-0.96%	0.07%
EUR	0.49%		-0.13%	0.04%	-0.66%	-0.90%	-0.47%	0.56%
GBP	0.62%	0.13%		0.43%	-0.53%	-0.77%	-0.34%	0.69%
JPY	0.45%	-0.04%	-0.43%		-0.70%	-0.95%	-0.51%	0.51%
CAD	1.15%	0.66%	0.53%	0.70%		-0.29%	0.19%	1.23%
AUD	1.39%	0.90%	0.77%	0.95%	0.29%		0.44%	1.47%
NZD	0.96%	0.47%	0.34%	0.51%	-0.19%	-0.44%		1.03%
CHF	-0.07%	-0.56%	-0.69%	-0.51%	-1.23%	-1.47%	-1.03%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Australian Dollar from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent AUD (base)/USD (quote).

Investors are confident that the RBA will hold interest rates steady at 3.6% as inflationary pressures in Australia are proving to be persistent. As the RBA is expected to keep interest rates on hold, the major trigger for the Australian Dollar will be the guidance on the monetary policy outlook.

Traders don’t see the RBA reducing its Official Cash Rate (OCR) in the near term, and are betting on a hike in 2026, following the release of the strong household spending data for October on Thursday, which came in stronger at 1.3% against 0.3% in September.

In addition to expectations for RBA keeping interest rates on hold, upbeat China’s Trade Balance data has also strengthened the Australian Dollar. Earlier in the day, the National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that the trade surplus widened to $111.68 billion from $90.07 billion in October, while it was expected to increase at a moderate pace to versus $100.2 billion.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Yen (JPY) underperforms its peers following the release of the weak Q3 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data. Revised figures showed that the Japanese economy contracted at a faster pace of 0.6% against the preliminary estimate of 0.4%, a scenario that could dwindle expectations of further interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BoJ).

Economic Indicator

Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), released by Japan’s Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis, is a measure of the total value of all goods and services produced in Japan during a given period. The GDP is considered as the main measure of Japan’s economic activity. The QoQ reading compares economic activity in the reference quarter to the previous quarter. Generally, a high reading is seen as bullish for the Japanese Yen (JPY), while a low reading is seen as bearish.