RBA’s Harper: AUD's recent surge threatens to hit the economy hard

The Australian Press reported the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board member Ian Harper’s comments delivered overnight, as he expressed his concerns over the impact of the recent appreciation in the Aussie dollar on the economy.

Key Quotes:

AUD's recent surge is due almost entirely to a loss of confidence in the US dollar

Threatens to hit the economy hard if the trend is not reversed soon

"The nature of this appreciation is marked by US dollar weakness across the board" 

"It's clear (this) is not specific to the Australian economy.

"You'd have to say the real economy in the US is staging a quite remarkable recovery. You would expect that would lead to a stronger US dollar, which was beginning to let off a bit of steam for the US economy.”

"Why might that be occurring? A lot of that has to do with confidence."