Industry groups in Australia have expressed concern as the value of the local currency surges pass the usual parity against the U.S. dollar. Is the rising Australian dollar a blessing or a curse to the economy?

The Australia Industry Group (Ai), the largest organization of companies in the country, said in an issued statement that both importers and exporters are taking a hard beating with the recent rise of the Australian dollar.

"The Australian dollar is being buffeted upwards by the vicissitudes of the global economy and this is coming on top of the elevated level of the dollar linked to the resources boom. Australian industry is a price-taker in this environment," Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Heather Ridout said on Wednesday.

She noted that trade exposed industries, whether export oriented or import competing, are taking a competitive hit while seeing limited benefits arising from the big investments in Australia's minerals sector.

"Industries which will be most affected include manufacturing, tourism and education which were the drivers of the miracle economy of the nineties and are some of the biggest employing sectors in Australia," Ms Ridout pointed out.

In spite this pain inflicted on industry groups, the higher Aussie dollar puts the country's growth rates in the positive territory, moderates inflation, and prevents the RBA from further increasing benchmark rates.

Analysts said the Aussie has been a "proxy" of sorts for commodities futures because Australia's debt-to-GDP ratio is low and interest rates are relatively high.

The Australia dollar has been the preferred currency as the interest rate yields at 4.75 percent are higher than that of the United States, the Japanese Yen and that of Europe's Euro and other currencies.

The moderate increase in the country's inflation rates had provided a further boost to the Aussie dollar.

According to Chris Weston, IG Markets Institutional Dealing strategist, the currency is seen to further rebound with the value hitting 1.12.

"The AUD/USD is getting quite crowded from a positioning perspective, although we believe the fundamentals are strong for the pair right now. With central banks diversifying into AUDs, it is unlikely we are going to see everyone run to the exit at once. The next stop appears to be 1.12, and traders will be paying even more attention than ever to narrative from CEOs at the upcoming earnings reports on potential downgrades to future earnings due to the high AUD," said Mr Weston in an emailed commentary.