Investing.com - The Australian dollar edged higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, as the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia showed a positive outlook for the economy and as sentiment on the greenback mildly weakened ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy decision.
AUD/USD hit 0.7284 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since December 10; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7262, adding 0.18%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7161, Monday's low and resistance at 0.7336, the high of December 10.
In the minutes of its December policy meeting, the RBA said the domestic economy is strengthening and noted that overal business conditions and the employment market looked healthy.
However, in its mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, Australia's Treasury said growth forecasts were downgraded to 2.5% in 2015/16 from a previous estimate of 2.75% in May and to 2.75% in 2016/17 from 3.25%.
The report also said that the country's debt and budget deficit will be higher than initially expected.
Separately, data showed that Australia's house price index rose by 2.0% in the third quarter, in line with expectations, after an increase of 2.7% in the three months to June.
Meanwhile, market participants awaited the Fed's highly-anticipated policy decision due on Wednesday. Most investors expect the Fed to raise interest rates for the first time since June 2006.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD adding 0.14% to 1.5197.