Investing.com - The Australian dollar held weaker in Asia on Wednesday with central bank official comments and a survey showing little impact as ahead of the Federal Reserve review on interest rates.
Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor Guy Debelle said the move by Chinese authorities to a more market-determined exchange rate should be welcomed and the initial depreciation should be view in context.
Debelle spoke to the Actuaries Institute banking in Sydney and said the move was a depreciation "not all that big in the general scheme of exchange rate moves," Debelle said, noting that it came in the context of a more than 15% appreciation of the renminbi in trade-weighted terms over the past year.
"What matters for global financial markets is the difference in portfolio allocation between the public and private sector in China," he added.
Later, the August Westpac-MI Leading Index fell 0.26 point to 97.49.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7134, down 0.10%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 120.36, down 0.05%.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.06% at 95.70.
Overnight, the dollar held modest gains against against the other major currencies on Tuesday, despite the release of downbeat U.S. data, as investors continued to focus on the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy statement on Thursday.
The greenback showed little reaction to data showing that U.S. retail sales rose 0.2% in August, compared to expectations for an increase of 0.3%, Retail sales gained 0.7% in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.6% uptick.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, added 0.1% last month, confounding expectations for a 0.2% rise. Core retail sales increased by 0.6% in July, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 0.4% gain.
Separately, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its Empire State manufacturing index improved to minus 14.67 this month from minus 14.92 in August, compared to expectations for a reading of minus 0.75.
Data also showed that U.S. industrial production fell 0.4% in August, compared to expectations for a 0.2% downtick. Industrial production increased by 0.9% in July, whose figure wad revised from a previously estimated 0.6% gain.
Sentiment on the dollar remained vulnerable amid concerns that mixed U.S. economic reports and recent volatility in global financial markets will prompt the U.S. central bank to refrain from hiking interest rates on Thursday.