Correlations Between AUDUSD, Coal, and Iron Ore

Apr 23, 2019

I've been taking quite a deep look at the relationship between correlatives of the Australian dollar lately. There's no question that this deep dive would be remiss without looking at correlation coefficients between AUDUSD and that of commodities it exports, primarily iron ore and coal. The chart really speaks for itself. Aussie dollar sees strength when coal and iron prices are up, weakness when its down. Pretty simple. Not much more to say beyond that, but the implications for this relationship are quite fundamental to several questions vis-a-vis the Australian economy such as financial diversification, their reliance upon Chinese imports, not to mention the environmental tolls the Aussies have suffered from global carbon emissions. All issues, public policy or financial, must recognize this important financial relationship before going forward to reassess any changes to the economy that come down on it. At the very least, the implications of these correlations need to be recognized.