The Australian Dollar is One a Winner of Qatar Dispute
Six Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.
Saudi Arabia said it would close borders, severing land, sea and air contact with the peninsula leading markets to bet that the country would be unable to export the contents of the world's largest natural gas reserve.
Stocks on Qatar's stock market crashed lower while natural gas prices shot higher as a result, with quotes being seen well over 1.0% higher at 30.61 at one stage.
A knock-on effect of this is a stronger Australian Dollar which has become the best-performing currency amongst a group of ten of the world’s ten largest currencies as a result.
“From an economic point of view, Qatar is not a big producer of oil but is a major supplier of LNG. As such the markets quickly surmised that any disruption or blockade of Qatar’s primary export could benefit Australia which is becoming a major LNG player in its own right,” says Boris Schlossberg, Director at BK Asset Management in New York.
The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate was seen at 1.7252 following the news, down 0.38%.
The Australian Dollar to US Dollar exchange rate was seen at 0.7480, down half a percent.
According to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Natural gas is Australia’s third-largest export product after iron ore and coal.
“Australia has more than $180 billion of liquefied natural gas export projects coming online, with developers planning to add about 53 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG production by 2017, an increase that would make the country the world’s top LNG exporter,” notes Schlossberg.
And rising prices could well boost the amount of foreign exchange the country will earn off its export of natural gas.
