Investing.com - The Aussie recovered a bit in Asia on Friday as GDP figures from major trading partner China came in better than expected, though the currency remained down so far on the day.
AUD/USD traded at 0.7625, down 0.08%, while USD/JPY changed hands at 106.20, up 0.78%. GBP/USD rose 0.57% to 1.3418.
GDP figures out of China showed a 6.7% gain in the second quarter ended June year-on-year period, beating the 6.6% rise seen, and also rose 1.8% quarter-on-quarter, better than the 1.6% increase expected.
Also in China, fixed asset investment rose 9.0%, less than the 9.4% year-on-year gain seen in June, while industrial production gained 6.2%, better than 5.9% seen in the same period and retail sales rose 10.6%, a tad better than 10.0% seen.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose 0.04% to 96.14.
Overnight, the dollar was trading at three-week highs against the yen on Thursday as stimulus expectations continued to pressure the Japanese currency, while the pound was trading above 1.33 after the Bank of England left interest rates on hold in a surprise decision.
The yen has weakened across that board since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition increased its majority in weekend parliamentary elections, feeding hopes for a fresh package of stimulus measures to spur economic growth.
The Japanese currency was also hit by a report from Bloomberg that former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had floated the idea of “helicopter money” with one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's key advisers in April.
“Helicopter money” is a term to describe how a central bank could finance government budgets directly as a way to combat deflation.
The pound jumped to its highest level since late June against the dollar on Thursday after the BoE wrong-footed markets by keeping interest rates steady at 0.5%, but signaled that it will ease at its August meeting.
The BoE meeting minutes stated that last month’s vote to leave the European Union is causing the British economy to weaken and singled out the housing market as an area of particular concern.
The Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims were unchanged at a 254,000 for the week ended July 9, not far from the 43-year low of 248,000 touched in mid-April.
In a separate report, the Labor Department said the producer price index rose 0.5% last month, the largest increase since May 2015, after rising 0.4% in May.