Australia defends strong dollar

Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean on Tuesday defended the strength of the country's currency, saying it played a major role in bolstering the economy during the global slowdown.

Speaking ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Singapore, Crean said the strong Australian dollar allowed the country to cope with the slowdown "better than any other developed country."

The strong dollar "is a reflection fundamentally of the strength of the Australian economy, an economy which of all the developed economies of the world, is performing the best."

Australia's dollar broke past the 90 US cents barrier to reach its highest level in 14 months in October. It was trading at 93 cents to the US dollar at 0500 GMT on Tuesday.

Australia was also the first major economy to raise interest rates since the worldwide crisis hit, from 3.0 percent to 3.25 percent in October, and hiking it another 25 basis points to 3.50 last week.

Crean attributed the strength of the dollar to the decision of the government in 1983 to float the currency, which he described as "an unequivocally good decision for the country."

"It set us on the path for the resilience that we now experience, for the way in which we can competitively compete with the rest of the world on so many fronts," he said.

The government is not looking to interfere in the dollar's valuation in the near term, Crean added.

"Australia clearly has no plans to move to any sort of regulatory environment in terms of its exchange rate... (as) Australia looks forward with confidence to the future."