Australian Dollar at 25 year highs

*The Australian dollar rose to its highest level in 25 years as prices of the nation's iron ore and coal exports climbed to records and steelmaker ArcelorMittal led companies buying stakes in the country's resource producers.

*Australia's economy, entering a 17th year of expansion, has weathered a global credit squeeze and four interest-rate increases in the past 12 months as demand from India and China pushed prices of raw materials to records.

*The Aussie has gained 5.8 percent this quarter, the second- best performer among the 16 most-active currencies, and 10.4 percent this year, before a Reserve Bank of Australia meeting tomorrow at which policy makers will keep the overnight cash rate target at a 12-year high of 7.25 percent, according to all 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

*Prices of raw materials influence the Australian dollar because commodity exports contribute about 17 percent to Australia's economy. The Aussie advanced last week as Rio Tinto Group said China agreed to pay a record price for iron ore, the nation's largest overseas shipment.

Source:Bloomberg

As the commodity boom continues, the currencies of commodity supplying nations will continue to rise while the currencies of commodity-demand nations keeps going down.
Australian, Canadian, New Zealand dollar have risen while Indian rupee was one of the worst performers of 2008 even though it supports a good growth.