Australian dollar reflects strong economy: Treasurer

The strong performance of the Australian dollar reflects the underlying strength of the country' s economy, Australian federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Saturday.

Swan is in Washington of U.S. to take part in International Monetary Fund and World Bank discussions about global economic progress following the financial crisis.

He is also meeting other G20 and Commonwealth finance ministers, and key U.S. officials, including senior executives from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

On Thursday night the Australian dollar hit 99.18 U.S. cents, the highest it has been since it was floated on foreign exchange markets in 1983.

It was trading at 98.19 U.S. cents late on Friday.

Australia's economy was one of the strongest among advanced economies, Swan told Australia Associated Press on Saturday.

"We didn't go into recession; we've had very strong employment growth.

"Unemployment in Australia is about half that in the United States.

"We have a very strong pipeline of investment happening in Australia and of course we are back on track to bring our budget back to surplus by 2013.

"I think the value of the currency tends to reflect the underlying strength of the Australian economy and the view that international investors have of the Australian economy despite all of the international uncertainty that we experienced."

According to Swan, international leaders have a strong track record in dealing with the global financial crisis, and he was optimistic they could deal with the challenges ahead.

Source:Xinhua