The Australian dollar flirted with sixth-month peaks on Thursday but a disappointing China growth report took the steam out of its rebound, which had been driven by brave bets the world economy was stabilising. The Aussie slid 0.4 percent after data showed China's economy grew 6.1 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago.
Only a little below analysts forecasts for 6.3 percent, but much lower than speculation about growth being as strong as 8 percent. "The whispers in the market were certainly for growth to be a bit firmer than that, so that weighed on market sentiment," said Jonathan Cavenagh, a currency strategist at Westpac.
Aussie weakened to $0.7258 after rising to an intra-day high of $0.7317 before the data, but was still up from $0.7154 seen here on Wednesday. The Aussie also fell to 71.77 yen from an intra-day high of 72.75, but was still up from Wednesday's 70.33.
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