The Aussie enjoyed another week of continued strength last week, against a basket of major currencies and especially the Pound. The main drivers of this strength were bullish domestic data and the hold of interest rates at 7.25%.

The data that has supported the Aussie has been in areas where many of the other developed economies have struggled on the back of the credit crunch, providing a double blow as it were when considering currency crosses such as the GBP-AUD. Indeed sharp rises in, company profits, building approvals, the current account deficit and importantly GDP are in direct contrast to the UK economy and were behind the drive towards Inter bank Levels approaching only 2 dollars to the pound, with trading actually below 2 at certain points last week.

The Aussie economy is still looking strong therefore, and is indeed coping much better with the credit crunch than the UK and US economies. It is still riding high on the carry trades and realistically only falter if we see large scale unwinding of these investments. However with traders and investors keen to find their feet again, the attractive rates in Australia should keep the Aussie Dollar strengthening against the pound for some time. If you need to buy Australian Dollars from Sterling in the near future, the use of Stop Loss and Limit orders could certainly play into your hands.