The Australian dollar may start the year gaining against refuge currencies like the yen, and currently not so attractive currencies like the pound and the euro as a global recovery expected for 2010 may trigger stronger demand for commodity exports from Australia, favoring the national currency in foreign-exchange markets.

The European common currency may experience further declines in the beginning of 2010 against currencies like the Canadian and the U.S. dollar, as well as the Swiss franc, as concerns regarding the financial health among the bloc members fuel negative speculations in trading markets towards the euro.

As the market sentiment has shifted towards the end of this year’s trading session, emerging market currencies like the Brazilian real and the South African rand, which ranked among the top performers in currency markets, may witness a decline in 2010 versus wealthy nations’ currecies in process of economic recovery.

The Australian dollar posted a significant decline this week and may extended its losses versus currencies like the U.S. and the Canadian dollar after policy makers affirmed that interest rates may not be hiked further in the short term, decreasing attractiveness for the Aussie dollar in currency markets.

The euro has been falling steadily since the beginning of the month when it touched the highest rate in 15 months versus the dollar, as speculations emerged in the U.S. that interest rates will be hiked from an all time low, declining attractiveness for the European bloc’s currency.

The U.K. economy is being one of the slowest to recover from the global slump that started in the second semester last year, and as economies recover globally faster than in the British Isles, the pound may decline further versus the euro and the dollar.