Costello: dollar taking toll on exporters

CANBERRA - The strong Australian dollar is making life tough for the country's exporters, says Treasurer Peter Costello.

"Our dollar is now at quite a high level," Costello said.

"Part of that is because commodities are high, but the other part of it is that the US dollar is falling all around the world and this is making life tougher for Australian exporters."

The Australian dollar has risen 15 per cent since early September, touching a nine-month high of 78.94USc overnight on Wednesday.

Costello said there was a lot of concern over the falling American dollar, particularly between Europe and America.

"This has become a very tetchy relationship.

"The European economies are not growing strongly, the American dollar is falling, that is making it harder for the Europeans and improving the Americans' competitiveness."

The two main problems facing the world economy were the rising oil price and the falling US dollar, the Treasurer said.

"We have been protected a little bit more recently [from the rising cost of oil] by ... our currency going up. That's actually insulated the price of fuel a little bit in Australia," he said. 
 

- REUTERS