RBA's Edwards talks down the Aussie in a WSJ interview

John Edwards, board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, that the Australian dollar is too high, while recognizing that he finds it hard to believe the currency can head much lower as talk mounts over major central banks adopting negative interest rate and as the Federal Reserve delays further rate hikes.

“It does look like it (the Australian dollar) has found a base, and I guess I would say I still think it is a bit too high. If it was driven entirely by commodity prices, it certainly should be lower", Mr Edwards said.

“The problem with leaving interest rates unchanged in Australia while other major central banks are contemplating easing is that it will risk the Australian dollar entering a damaging appreciation. We now expect 25 basis points of easing in May and 25 basis points of easing in July", Mr Edwards added.

“I’d be a lot more concerned about this level if it was not that our export performance on the whole has been pretty good,” Mr Edwards said.