Australian dollar drifts

The Australian dollar barely budged on Monday as the country's central bank left open the prospect of higher interest rates, but one too distant to entice investors now.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's sounded suitably hawkish in its quarterly policy review, justifying last week's rise in interest rates by pointing to a lack of spare capacity in the economy after 15 years of uninterrupted growth.
The central bank again predicted that underlying inflation would remain at the very top of its 2 to 3 percent target band for the next year, though it saw some prospect of a moderation after that as higher borrowing costs began to bite.
Having to wait over two months for a conclusion did little to attract trade now, and the Aussie dollar held in a tight $0.7658 to $0.7678 range for the entire session. It finished around $0.7676, compared with $0.7677/79 here late on Friday.