Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar climbed to its highest level since August 2008 after a report showed China’s imports of iron ore jumped to a record last month while copper shipments gained unexpectedly. New Zealand’s currency advanced.

The so-called Aussie strengthened against 15 of its 16 major counterparts after China said shipments of iron ore, Australia’s biggest raw materials export, soared 30 percent in September from the previous month and copper purchases increased 23 percent. New Zealand’s dollar rose after the nation’s central bank said it decided to end some emergency liquidity facilities.

“The China data in general showed pretty strong exports and imports,” said David Forrester, a Singapore-based currency economist at Barclays Plc. The figures are “much stronger than consensus so it is good news for commodity currencies,” he said.

Australia’s dollar rose 0.5 percent to 91.30 U.S. cents at 4:17 p.m. in Sydney, from 90.89 cents in New York yesterday. It had touched 91.45 cents, the most since August 2008, and bought 81.28 yen. New Zealand’s dollar gained 0.3 percent to 74.13 U.S. cents from 73.93 cents yesterday. It fetched 65.99 yen.

China, Australia’s largest trading partner, said exports fell at the slowest pace in nine months in September. Shipments dropped 15.2 percent to $115.9 billion from a year earlier, the customs bureau said on its Web site today. Imports dropped 3.5 percent from a year earlier, the smallest decline in 11 months.

Consumer Confidence

Demand for high-yielding currencies also rose after Intel Corp., the world’s biggest chipmaker, forecast profits that topped estimates. Equity futures in the U.S. rose after Intel forecast fourth-quarter sales of $9.7 billion to $10.5 billion, compared with the $9.5 billion average estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The Shanghai Composite index surged 2.3 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.7 percent.

“The equity markets are going to take a very positive cue from the Intel results,” said Richard Grace, chief currency strategist in Sydney at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. “Most of Intel’s demand comes from offshore and the results reflect a better-than-expected global economy.”

Signs that Australia’s economic recovery is strengthening also boosted the Aussie. Consumer confidence rose to the highest in more than two years, according to a Westpac Banking Corp. and Melbourne Institute survey of 1,200 consumers conducted between Oct. 5 and Oct. 11 and released today in Sydney.

Gains in the sentiment index to 121.4 points in October suggest the central bank’s unexpected decision last week to increase interest rates won’t erode household spending plans.

Benchmark interest rates are 3.25 percent in Australia and 2.5 percent in New Zealand, compared with 0.1 percent in Japan and as low as zero in the U.S., attracting investors to the South Pacific nations’ higher-yielding assets. The risk in such trades is that currency market moves will erase profits.

Emergency Measures

The so-called kiwi gained after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said in a statement that it is removing the Term Auction Facility, which enabled banks to borrow funds using bills, bonds and mortgage- backed securities as collateral. It is also stopping the weekly Reserve Bank bill auction.

“Offshore markets will consider this to be a sign of confidence for the New Zealand economy and may interpret it as a removal of some quantitative easing, lending strength to the kiwi,” said Imre Speizer, a strategist at Westpac in Wellington.

New Zealand house prices rose 1.9 percent in September, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Inc. said on its Web site. House sales rose 44 percent from a year earlier to 6,464.

Bonds, Swaps

“There’s a lot of investor interest in the dollar. We tell them a realistic story about the New Zealand economy, but compared to others they see us as having quite a strong story,” Finance Minister Bill English told reporters today in Wellington. “It is quite a concern to us for the nature of the recovery.”

Demand for New Zealand’s currency was limited after the government said its cash deficit was NZ$8.64 billion ($6.4 billion) in the year ended June 30. In May, the government estimated the deficit was NZ$8.46 billion.

Australia today sold A$700 million ($634.9 million) of debt maturing February 2017 at a weighted average yield of 5.33 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio at the auction was 2.4.

Australian government bonds fell. The yield on 10-year notes added four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 5.37 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The price of the 5.25 percent security due March 2019 slipped 0.298, or A$2.98 per A$1,000 face amount, to 99.092.

New Zealand’s two-year swap rate, a fixed payment made to receive floating rates, rose to 4.36 percent from 4.33 yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 14, 2009 02:05 EDT