The Australian dollar sank to its lowest level for the week on Friday at below 71 US cents, tripped by a sell-off in the yen versus the US dollar, and after repeated tests towards 72 cents lacked follow-through.
With was no fresh local events to steer the market, a weaker than expected gross domestic product from Japan, Australia's largest trading partner, saw the Aussie quickly lose ground as the yen fell around one percent to the USD.
"It followed on from the weak GDP out of Japan. Once we got through yesterday's low of 71.20 cents there were a few stop-losses taken out which has forced it down here," said Stuart Moore, chief dealer of foreign exchange at St George Bank.
Japan's GDP grew just 0.4 percent in the second quarter compared with a median expectations for 1.0 percent growth.
The AUD was $0.7067/72, compared with $0.7139/44 late here on Thursday.
The Aussie had rallied to a fresh 3-week high of around 71.87 US cents offshore in a knee-jerk reaction to disappointing US retail sales data, but the US dollar bounced back as previous data was revised upwards.