The Australian dollar has hit a three-month high today, brushing off disappointing retail sales data while awaiting the all-important jobs data from America later this afternoon.

At 11.30am (GMT) the Aussie dollar was trading at US73.86c up from US73.41c in yesterday’s trade.

The Australian bureau of statistics reported today that retail sales in Australia came in at 0.3 percent A$24.834 billion, against analysts’ expectations for a figure of 0.4 percent, but the disappointing news was not enough to stop the Aussie dollar which continued to climb.

This afternoon may be make or break for the Aussie dollar as the unemployment rate and Nonfarm payrolls figure hit the market from the US with analysts predicting a jobless figure of 4.9 percent and 190,000 for the Non farm payrolls.

Many analysts have written off an interest rate rise this month from the US Federal Reserve due to the lack of world economic growth and fears that another move may shock the world markets.

If this afternoon numbers are healthy, the Fed may overlook this and raise rates anyway.