The Australian dollar drifted off four-week lows versus the greenback on Monday, helped by China's upbeat growth outlook, but weakness in Asian equity markets capped its upside. The Aussie last traded at $1.0547, off a session low of $1.0526 after a Chinese official said the nation's economy was likely to grow an average of 9 percent annually over the next five years.
The Aussie is typically very sensitive to news from China, the nation's key export market. It has dropped more than 4 percent in the last two weeks, recoiling from a 29-year high of $1.1012 as some commodity prices corrected sharply. Recent disappointing data including surprisingly weak jobs data last week added more pressure on the Aussie as markets priced out the risk of a near-term interest rate hike. Last Friday, it hit a four-week trough of $1.0520.
Earlier, the Aussie tracked a fall in the euro following news of the arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for sexual assault, which increased uncertainty on aid for Greece and other indebted euro zone countries. The NZ dollar eased to $0.7840, having touched a two-week low around $0.7826, weighed by weak regional equity markets. The kiwi was trading close to key support levels which, if broken, could be a cue for the currency to take a leg lower, analysts at the ANZ bank said in a note to clients.