Retail not passing on the savings?

Question

I noticed some changes in the currency over the last year, like in Australia, the American dollar was selling from $0.60 (approx) to $0.88.

However, no matter the changes, the goods imported never seem to differ in price. In fact, they only go up!

Why?

Answer 1

I would expect some price decreases of US made goods but not as much as implied by the exchange rates. Much of the retail price is in domestic transportation and services which will not have decreased. There may also be some delay in the effect of the fall of the dollar to reach stores, because only new wholesale price would reflect the change. Big ticket Items like orders of US made cars should have had an obvious price decline. I just went shopping for Christmas goodies in the US and imported chocolates are up almost 20% from last year.