Australia to cut economic growth forecasts on lower consumer spending

Reuters reported that Australia's economic growth is expected to slow sharply next financial year as rising inflation curbs household consumption, according to new forecasts to be unveiled by Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Tuesday's budget. 

Meanwhile, from the data calendar, Aussie inflation is slated for this week as the main event. ''We expect a more dovish headline Consumer Price Index print due to the significant offset from the rebates and lower pump prices,'' analysts at TD Securities explained. ''However, trimmed-mean CPI may stay elevated at 1.6% QoQ as broader price pressures are still brewing, especially in the housing and food categories. Unless trimmed-mean inflation is strongly higher, we expect the Bank to stick with 25bps hikes until March 2023.''

As for AUD/USD, there has been high volatility at the start of the week related to suspected Japanese forex market intervention. The pair is losing some 0.4% at the time of writing to a low of 0.6348 from 0.6411 the high.