The Australian currency was higher at Monday noon, hitting a four-month high as traders took heart in strong Chinese economic data released over the weekend.

At midday east-coast time, the Aussie was changing hands at 93.03 US cents, an increase from Friday's finish of 92.31 US cents. The local dollar was also buying 78.3 yen, 72.75 euro cents and 60.4 pence.

Since 7am, it has traded between 92.87 and 93.17 US cents, the strongest level since April 30.

The Aussie pushed slightly higher in morning trade, but met resistance around the 93US cent level, according to IG Markets research analyst Ben Potter.

''There's still a fair bit of resistance where those two previous highs were.''

''Now with this better than expected trend in economic data we might see it push above, but it's going to need to be pretty strong to get through there,'' Mr Potter said.

While consumer inflation in the Asian superpower expanded at the fastest pace in nearly two years in August, its National Bureau of Statistics showed China remained robust that month.

Production, retail trade, inflation and money supply all increased at a firmer annual rate, implying that authorities will have to raise rates to slow the economy.

The news led to the Australian dollar touching above 93 several times in early trade, its highest level in almost five months.

Mr Potter said the local unit can increase further, ''but I don't think it will get there this week."

''Once Europe and the US come in there's probably going to be quite a few people caught by surprise on this Chinese data.

''It could push up towards 93.5, 93.7 tonight but my gut feeling is it probably can't get up to that level tonight without a lot of selling coming through,'' Mr Potter said.