The Australian currency hanged onto 26-month highs as investors waited for possible quantitative easing measures by the US Federal Reserve.

The local unit reached 96 US cents during offshore trade, its highest level since July 25 2008 when it touched 97.92 US cents.

At the local close on Thursday, the Aussie was changing hands at 95.62 US cents, down marginally from yesterday's finish of 95.64 cents.

The domestic dollar was continuing its upward trend after the US Federal Reserve's pessimistic assessment of the US economy on Tuesday, according to 4CAST head of research Ray Attrill.

''The underlying theme is really still that the Fed has opened the door to a new round of quantitative easing with that statement on Tuesday, and at the moment nothing has come along to shut that door,'' he said.

''The US dollar is still on the back foot and the Aussie is doing well by default.''

Financial markets are pricing in about a 60 per cent chance of a 25-basis-points hike in the official cash when the RBA board meets on October 5.

Mr Attrill said the Aussie would continue appreciating but may fall short of parity with the US dollar.

''My guess is that at some stage in the coming weeks, rather than months, we will see a much bigger hiccup in global risk appetite,'' he said.

''When that happens, you could easily find the Australian dollar is suddenly looking down at 90 cents in fairly short order and we'll put the parity-party hats back in the cupboard for another day.''