Saturday 4 June 2011

Aussie kicking US ass

...assets, that is! In particular, monetary assets. Just take a look at this picture:

And now I will explain this picture.

What this is, is the exchange rates of the NZ dollar versus AUS and USD (as provided by x-rates). More specifically, it's how much NZD you need to buy a single AUS or USD. For example, in the middle of March (17th), you'd need NZ$1.38 to buy a US$1, but only NZ$1.36 to buy AUS$1.

But then, at that point on... the Aussie dollar, which has been cresting the US dollar before then, takes off as the US dollar plummets. And as at now (2nd June) while you need NZ$1.31 to buy AUS$1, you only need NZ$1.23 to buy US$1... the Aussie dollar is stronger!

Which all adds up to... it's cheaper to buy from the far distant States than the local country across the ditch. (Well, I say 'cheaper', that does assume the product costs the same figure in different currencies and not really taking postal charges into account...) To be honest, I've often looked at US sources *cough*Amazon*cough* because the range is better, so not a huge change...

But now it's definitely worth the Aussies looking at importing as well. It probably won't last (or, alternatively, we're seeking the US crash), so grab while you can.

(This probably also means something for those that trade currencies, but I'm not in the financial markets, so hopefully someone else will comment on how to make a killing there...)

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