Technical analysts at Westpac Banking Corp., the second-best foreign-exchange forecaster for the 6 quarters through September 30 after Standard Chartered Plc, expect that Australian dollar will climb this year above the parity with its US counterpart.

The specialists claim that it’s quite likely that the Federal Reserve will ease monetary policy while the Reserve Bank of Australia will raise its key interest rate by 75 basis points during the next 9 months. According to Westpac’s estimate, Fed will increase asset purchases by $1.5 trillion. Previously the economists cited $800 billion figure.

Westpac forecasts that Australian currency will reach $1.02 by the end of 2010 and $1.05 by June 2011.

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