The Australian dollar fell in European trade on Tuesday against a basket of major rivals, extending losses for the second straight day against the dollar and moving away from a four-month peak on profit-taking.

The decline came despite the rather aggressive meeting minutes released by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which hurt the odds of rate cuts this year, with investors now waiting for more inflation and labor data.

The Price

The AUD/USD fell 0.5% today to 0.6662, with a session-high at 0.6709.

The Aussie lost 0.4% on Monday against the US dollar away from a four-month high at 67.14 cents.

Aussie managed to gain 1.4% last week against the US dollar due to improving risk appetite back then.

The RBA

Earlier today, the Reserve Bank of Australia released the minutes of the meeting it held earlier this month, at which it maintained interest rates unchanged at 4.35%.

The RBA said back then the priority was on bringing inflation towards the 2% target, however recent data point to persistent risks.

The RBA expects inflation to remain above targets for an extended duration, and could eventually reach such targets after 2026.

Australian Rates

It looks clear that the RBA wont be rushing to take big steps to change policies this year, thus its not likely for Australian interest rate cuts to occur this year.