The Australian dollar opened lower on Friday. The local currency was trading this morning at $US 94.91 cents.

The figure is lower than Thursday's close of $US 95.63 cents. The local unit traded between $US 94.67 cents and $US 95.75 cents since 5 p.m. yesterday.

Last night's trading range was within the local dollar's 26-month highs as investors anticipated an increase to the US money supply. The local currency rose to $US 96 cents last night, its highest since it touched $US 97.92 cents on July 25 2008.

Commonwealth Bank vice-president of institutional banking and markets Tim Kelleher attributed the slight dip in the value of the Australian dollar to news that Ireland's economy contracted by 1.2 percent between April and June.

“There was some pretty poor European data, and Ireland's gross domestic product (GDP) was particularly poor overnight,” Kelleher said.

The Australia dollar can buy the British pound at $AU 1.6529, the Euro at $AU 1.4058, and the Canadian dollar at $AU 1.0190. It could be exchanged with a unit of the Chinese Yuan for $AU 0.1573 cents, the Hong Kong dollar for $AU 0.1359 cents, and the Japanese Yen for 0.0124 cent.

The New Zealand Kiwi is worth $AU 0.7676 cents. Against the Singapore dollar, the local unit is equivalent to $AU 0.7940 cents.