The Australian currency was about three-quarters of a US cent higher on Wednesday noon after the release of stronger than expected local gross domestic product (GDP) data.

The domestic dollar soared after the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced national GDP increased 1.2 per cent in the three months to June for an annual rate of 3.3 per cent.

Economists predicted a quarterly rise of about 0.9 per cent for an annual rate of 2.7 per cent.

The Aussie was also buying 75.73 yen, 70.74 euro cents and 58.42 pence.

The local dollar was changing hands at 89.69 US cents shortly after the GDP data was published. This compared to 89.48 US cents just before the release of the economic data.

At 12nn east-coast time, the Australian currency was trading at 89.72 US cents, exceeding Tuesday's finish of 88.93 US cents.

Since 7am, it ranged from 89.02 to 89.8 US cents.

The Aussie got a good lift on the GDP announcement partly because of the lower expectations, according to Nomura Australia chief economist Steven Roberts.

''Until this number and the data we had recently, there was a view there could be downside risks to the Australian economy,'' he said.

''As result of that the markets were factoring in the likelihood that maybe the RBA may be forced into an interest rate cut, at some point.

''What the data today showed with the numbers we had in the last day or two is there is very little likelihood at all that RBA could consider a cut.

''More likely it still has to think about a hike at some point later this year because parts of the economy are going so strongly they're going to be chewing up excess capacity.''

Reports out on overnight Australian time include US ISM manufacturing data, which is predicted to reveal further evidence of weakness in the US economy.

Mr Roberts predicts the local dollar will stay resilient for quite a while.