Julia Gillard says Australia's exchange rate would likely remain around historic highs as investors around the world sought to buy the country's high-yielding assets.
The Prime Minister said the strong currency needn't be viewed as necessarily an impediment to the nation's exporters, citing Germany's economic success in the days before the country joined the euro.
"The sustained strength of our dollar is now a feature of the economic landscape," Ms Gillard said in a keynote speech here ahead of leading a major political delegation to China.
"On a trade-weighted basis, it recently rose to its highest level since 1985. It may persist for some time given Australia's status increasingly as something of a safe-haven currency."
Known as the Aussie dollar, the currency continues to hover around historic highs against the greenback and others, helped by the nation's relatively high interest rate and robust economy.
