Australian dollar opens slightly lower

The Australian dollar opened slightly lower on Monday as investors await a report to be released this week that will determine if the Reserve Bank of Australia's was going to cut interest rates next month.

At the Asian open on Monday, the local unit was trading at 74.65 U.S. cents, down from 74.88 cents on Friday.

"We expect both the RBA and RBNZ (Reserve Bank of Australia and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand) to cut their policy rates in August," said Westpac strategist Imre Speizer.

"The uncertainty generated by Brexit plus further RBA easing should be negative for the AUD (Australian dollar) during the months ahead," said Speizer.

At present, the RBA is waiting on the Consumer Price Index data, to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday after which, the central bank will decide on whether it will go ahead and reduce interest rates in August.

"The Australian dollar will grind lower because of a recovery in the U.S. dollar and if a weak Q2 underlying Consumer Price Index (0.4 percent or less) lifts the pricing for a RBA rate cut next week (and November). Weak growth in wages, low inflation expectations, and some spare capacity in the labor market is bearing down on inflation," said Commonwealth Bank of Australia's currency strategist and international economists Joseph Capurso. Endit