The Australian dollar broke back through the US77c mark on Friday after a strong round of data from the world’s 2nd largest economy.
At close of trade on Friday the Australian dollar reached a new nine month high to finish at US77.21c.
Industrial production in China jumped 6.8 percent in March from a year earlier and well up from 5.4 percent last month and marking the biggest growth since June last year reported the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.
Retail sales also surprised to the upside coming in at 10.5 percent against analysts’ expectations for a number of 10.4 percent and well up on last month’s figure of 10.2 percent.
Chinese GDP hit the market at 6.7 percent on a yearly basis, slightly down from last month’s figure of 6.8 percent
Tom Rafferty, Asia economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit noted that the Chinese economy still has major problems and that investors should not overlook the long term picture,
"Today's released data ought not to distract from the fact that the structural issues facing China's economy remain unresolved," he said
"It has taken considerable monetary and fiscal policy loosening to stabilize economic growth at this level and this effort has distracted from the reform agenda that is fundamental to long-term economic sustainability." He added.