Savvy travellers might be wise to avoid the original Disneyland in California as exchange rates for US dollars soar.Credit:Bloomberg
“The Aussie dollar is very sensitive to financial market volatility,” said Commonwealth Bank economist Carol Kong. The bank is forecasting the dollar to drop to US62¢ by March next year,but Kong said it could fall even lower than in March 2020,when it briefly dropped below US60¢ over uncertainty about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economy.
Across the Atlantic,the British pound crashed to record lows against the US dollar afterLiz Truss’ new government announced it would fund surprise tax cuts and borrow around £290 billion to do so.
Chief executive of FP Markets Nick Twidale said it was only a matter of time before the pound reached parity with the US dollar. While Britons get used to their pounds only being worth slightly more than $US1,Australians are enjoying the best exchange rate on the currency since Brexit in 2016.
“That’s at very good levels if you need to buy anything from the UK,” he said.
In Japan,the central bank has had to intervene in currency markets for the first time in 25 yearsafter the yen dropped 20 per cent of its value against the US dollar this year. Fast food giant McDonald’s cited the country’s economic woes,including rising input costs and the fluctuating yen,when it raised prices at its Japanese restaurants for the second time this year.