Investing.com - The Australian dollar was higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, even as the Reserve Bank of Australia said the Aussie is too high, as upbeat industrial production data from China lent some support to the export-related currency.
AUD/USD hit 0.8828 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since October 16; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8805, gaining 0.24%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8730, the low of October 17 and resistance at 0.8865, the high of October 15.
In the minutes of its October policy meeting, the RBA reiterated that the Australian dollar is still too strong to help rebalance the economy and discussed the need for banks to maintain high lending standards.
The central bank also said that "moderate growth overall had continued into the September quarter."
Meanwhile, data showed that industrial production in China rose at an annualized rate of 8.0% last month, exceeding expectations for a 7.5% rise, after a 6.9% gain the previous month.
A separate report showed that China's economy grew at an annual rate of 7.3% in the three months to September, slightly higher than the 7.2% forecast by economists, but slowing from 7.5% in the second quarter.
It was the slowest rate of growth since the first quarter of 2009, in the midst of the global financial crisis.
China is Australia's biggest export partner.
The Aussie was also higher against the euro, with EUR/AUD slipping 0.10% to 1.4557.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release private sector data on existing home sales.