Australian dollar falls past 90 US cents

The Australian dollar has fallen below 90 US cents for the first time since mid-March as expectations of a US interest rate hike and weak Chinese data weigh on the currency. At 1700 AEST on Monday, the local unit was trading at 90.00 US cents, down from 90.66 cents on Friday. During the afternoon it dropped as low as 89.84 US cents, the currency's weakest level since March 20. China's industrial production growth slowed sharply to 6.9 per cent in August to its worst level since the global financial crisis, figures released over the weekend showed. ThinkForex senior markets analyst Matt Simpson said the Chinese data put further downward pressure on the Aussie, which was already taking a beating from a rallying greenback. The US dollar is trading near six year highs against the yen and 14 month highs against the euro on expectations the US Federal Reserve might raise its Federal Funds rate sooner than previously expected, according to skynews.com