Australia's interest rate futures have attracted the interest of most investors, who have considered them a safe haven from the European debt crisis.

Transactions in the main 30-day cash rate, the 90-day bank bill and 3- and 10-year bond futures climbed in June to a daily average of 525,536, ASX Group said on July 6. Related reports from Bloomberg said Australian government debt has gained 2.5 percent since June 1, including reinvested interest, the most among 20 developed markets tracked by Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.

Australia's government debt is extending better returns as compared to the US with 0.5 percent, while Germany is at 2 percent.

Australia's Treasurer Wayne Swan earlier said that the government's new budget will allow them to return to surplus by 2013 after borrowing grew by more than 60 percent since the end of 2009.

The Australia dollar has appreciated 9 percent in the past 12 months, second to the Swiss franc, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes, as investors sought alternatives to the U.S. and Europe, which are struggling to reduce their debt loads.

Bloomberg said: "The diversification flow into Australia is very clear," said Jarrod Kerr, director of Australia rates strategy at Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore. "The wilder it gets the more futures take over, since the good thing about the futures market is that it's incredibly liquid."

Futures Trading

Bloomberg said in a report that trading in 30-day cash rate futures rose to 885,640 contracts, a record monthly volume that was 8 percent higher than the previous one set in May 2011. Transactions in 90-day bank bill futures climbed to 2,879,948 contracts for the month, 7 percent more than the previous high in August 2007, according to the ASX, which operates the Sydney Futures Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange.

Futures volumes were lifted last month by a record A$31.1 billion ($33 billion) of Australian-dollar bonds that came due in June, said Brad Gibson, head of rates strategies at ING Investment Management in Sydney.

Federal and state governments repaid A$20.2 billion of local currency debt, while A$10.9 billion of supranational, financial and company notes matured, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.