The Australian dollar strengthened today as the pace of Australia’s economic growth was fastest in three years and after the reports showed that the manufacturing in the US and China expanded faster than predicted.

The Australian gross domestic product rose 1.2 percent from March to June compared to the 0.7 percent growth in the previous three months, beating the economists’ forecasts of the 0.9 percent growth. The US ISM PMI grew from 55.5 in July to 56.3 in August. China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index advanced from 51.2 to 51.7 in August.

The rally of the global equities increased the appeal of the growth-related currencies, also supporting the Aussie. The Aussie and the kiwi (the nickname of the New Zealand dollar) outperformed all other most traded currencies.

AUD/USD jumped from 0.8905 to 0.9106 today as of 21:43 GMT. EUR/AUD fell from its opening level of 1.4234 to 1.4056, while AUD/JPY rose from 74.97 to 76.89.

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