Australian exporters well above Australian dollar pain threshold: research

More than 50 percent of export businesses in Australia with annual turnover of up to 500 million AU dollars nominate the 91 U.S. cent-mark as their pain threshold, research from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) showed on Friday.


It's been eight months since the local dollar traded below 91 U.S. cents.


"The bottom line: exporters are hurting at current levels of the Australian dollar of around 106 U.S. cents," CBA said in its quarterly Aussie Dollar Barometer.


The bank said almost 80 percent of exporters were considering changing their selling prices as a response to their reduced competition with offshore businesses.


For importers, the strong Australian dollar improves competitiveness, but still 50 percent of those included in the research are considering changing their selling prices.


CBA said competitiveness in the domestic market was the most likely reason for that, which may be forcing businesses to pass on the benefits of a high Australian dollar.


Small and medium sized businesses expect the dollar to remain above parity for the remainder of the year and into 2012, according to CBA's research.


Exporters expect the pain to worsen, with many predicting the dollar to hit 1.16 U.S. dollars in the September quarter of 2011.


CBA's research is based on a survey of more than 600 Australian businesses conducted earlier this month by market research firm East & Partners.
(Source:http://news.xinhuanet.com)