CANBERRA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Australian dollar hit a 28 year high as it edged closer to parity with the U.S. dollar, rising to a new post-float record of 99.70 U.S. cents on Thursday morning.

At 11:15am (AEDT) on Thursday, the local unit was trading at 99. 70 U.S. cents, up more than one U.S. cent from Wednesday local close of 98.46 cents, and its highest point since the currency was floated on December 8, 1983.

Earlier on Thursday, the Australian dollar had reached as high as 99.34 U.S. cents as gold, oil and other commodities rallied sharply.

Australia's economy is dependent on the export of commodities and higher commodity prices provide strong support for its currency.

According to CMC Markets foreign exchange dealer, Tim Waterer, the local unit firmed throughout?on Wednesday Australian time after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated that quantitative easing measures would be adopted as soon as November.

"We saw a small uptick in the Australian dollars on the back of the confidence data this morning," Waterer told News.com.au on Thursday. "For the rest of the session it was mainly tracking the gold price higher."

Westpac chief currency strategist Robert Rennie, now expected the Australian dollars will hit 1.02 U.S. dollars by year's end.