Investing.com - The Australian dollar fell to fresh five-and-a-half year lows against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after disappointing Australian import prices data and as the Federal Reserve's latest policy statement supported demand for the greenback.
AUD/USD hit 0.7854 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since August 2009; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.7874, edging down 0.15%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.7699 and resistance at 0.8025, Wednesday's high.
In a report, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that import prices rose 0.9% in the last quarter, confounding expectations for an increase of 1.5%, after a 0.8% fall in the three months to September.
Meanwhile, the greenback strengthened after the Fed indicated that interest rates could start to rise around mid-year.
Following its policy meeting on Wednesday, the Fed said it would keep rates on hold at least until June and reiterated its pledge to be patient on raising interest rates, while acknowledging the solid economic recovery and strong growth in the labor market.
The central bank also said it expected inflation to keep declining in the short term and added that it would take "financial and international developments" into account before deciding when to hike borrowing costs.
The Aussie was lower against the euro, with EUR/AUD adding 0.18% to 1.4338.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish the weekly report on initial jobless claims as well as private sector data on pending home sales.