Investing.com - The Australian dollar slid lower against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, weighed by the release of downbeat Australian economic growth data, while the New Zealand dollar held steady.
AUD/USD declined 0.35% to trade at 0.7435.
Earlier Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said the country’s gross domestic product fell 0.5% in the third quarter, confounding expectations for a 0.3% rise.
Australia’s economy grew at a rate of 0.6% in the second quarter, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated growth rate of 0.5%.
Year-on-year, Australia’s GDP increased by 1.8% in the three months to September, compared to expectations for a 2.5% rise.
NZD/USD was little changed at 0.7120.
Meanwhile, the greenback remained broadly supported after Friday’s solid U.S. jobs report for November confirmed expectations for an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.09% at 100.58.