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The Reserve Bank's latest exchange rate readings, taken at 4.00 pm on Friday 2 October, put the Australian dollar at 69.33 US cents and the trade-weighted index at 64.4.

Exchange rates are among the most frequently quoted numbers in Australian finance, and among the least explained. The Reserve Bank of Australia's homepage lists a set of reference rates, and the most recent readings, as at 4.00 pm on Friday 2 October 2026, were:

  • US dollar: 0.6933 (69.33 US cents per Australian dollar)
  • Trade-weighted index: 64.4
  • Chinese renminbi: 4.6493
  • Japanese yen: 109.42
  • Euro: 0.6164

These figures are a snapshot of a single moment on a single day. They do not, by themselves, say whether the Australian dollar is rising or falling, and the RBA's homepage does not attach a forecast to them. What they do provide is a clear reference point heading into a busy month for the central bank.

Reading the numbers

Each rate is quoted as the amount of foreign currency one Australian dollar buys. So at Friday's 4.00 pm reading, one Australian dollar was worth:

  • 0.6933 US dollars, or 69.33 US cents;
  • 4.6493 Chinese renminbi;
  • 109.42 Japanese yen;
  • 0.6164 euros.

To make that concrete, here is an illustration only, using the RBA's reference rates rather than any rate a bank or money changer would actually offer. At those rates, A$1,000 would be equivalent to US$693.30, €616.40, ¥109,420 or 4,649.30 renminbi. Working the other way, a US$100 purchase would be equivalent to about A$144.24 at the 0.6933 rate.

These are simple conversions at a single point in time. Rates offered to consumers and businesses may differ from the RBA's reference figures, and rates move continuously during trading.

What the trade-weighted index adds

The US dollar rate gets most of the attention, but it only tells you how the Australian dollar is faring against one currency. The trade-weighted index, or TWI, takes a broader view. It measures the Australian dollar against a basket of currencies of Australia's trading partners, weighted by their importance in trade.

Unlike the bilateral rates, the TWI is an index rather than a price. Its reading of 64.4 on Friday afternoon is most useful when compared with other readings of the same index over time, rather than as a standalone number. The RBA's homepage snapshot does not include that history, so this article does not draw conclusions about the TWI's direction.

The value of the TWI is that it can show something the US dollar rate cannot. If the Australian dollar moves against the US dollar but not against other currencies, the TWI will reflect that more muted overall picture. For an economy that trades with many partners, that broader measure can be more informative than any single bilateral rate.

Why the RBA watches the dollar so closely

The exchange rate is not just a number for travellers and importers. Governor Michele Bullock has described it as central to how monetary policy works.

At her media conference on 29 September, after the Monetary Policy Board raised the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 4.60 per cent, Bullock described the exchange rate channel as the most important channel of monetary policy, because it affects import prices.

That matters in the current environment, because much of the inflation pressure the RBA has identified is global in origin. The Board's statement said: "The conflict in the Middle East has broadened and global energy prices are now much higher than had been assumed in the August forecasts." It also said: "AI-related demand is driving rapid growth in global prices for technology-related goods."

Global prices like these reach Australian consumers through imports, and the value of the Australian dollar affects how much they cost in local terms. The Board also noted that "Higher fuel prices have partially been passed through to prices of other goods and services."

The latest headline inflation reading, the August monthly CPI indicator, was 4.0 per cent over the year. Underlying inflation has been about 3.5 per cent for the past six months, according to the Governor. Both are above the 2–3 per cent target range.

The Governor has been clear that the RBA's concern is about expectations as much as current prices. "It's critical that we stop expectations for high inflation from becoming embedded in price-setting decisions," she said. The Board's statement noted that "Short-term measures of inflation expectations remain elevated."

The RBA's stated target is inflation of 2–3 per cent, and the exchange rate is one of the channels through which its decisions affect prices. Bullock's comments simply underline why the dollar is part of the picture the Board considers.

What to watch

The coming weeks bring several scheduled events that market participants and the RBA will be watching:

  • 13 October, 11.30 am AEDT: minutes of the September Monetary Policy Board meeting.
  • 18 and 19 October: Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) Christopher Kent is scheduled to give an interview on News 24 with Ross Greenwood, and to take part in a fireside chat at the Commonwealth Bank Global Markets Conference in Sydney.
  • 28 October: the next CPI update.
  • 3 November, 2.30 pm AEDT: the next cash rate decision and the November Statement on Monetary Policy, with a media conference at 3.30 pm.

The Board said it "will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target, including increasing the cash rate target further if needed." That describes its stance, not a commitment to a particular decision.

For businesses and households with exposure to foreign currencies, a neutral starting point is simply to note where the reference rates sit today, and to recognise that they can move quickly in response to global developments.

The bottom line

As at 4.00 pm on Friday 2 October, the RBA's reference rates had the Australian dollar at 69.33 US cents, 4.6493 renminbi, 109.42 yen and 0.6164 euros, with the trade-weighted index at 64.4. Those numbers are a snapshot, not a trend. But with the Governor describing the exchange rate as the most important channel of monetary policy because of its effect on import prices, and with global energy and technology prices adding to inflation pressure, the dollar remains a key part of the backdrop to the RBA's 3 November decision.