SYDNEY, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar was steady on Tuesday, taking in its stride a 50-basis-point hike in the official cash rate by the country's central bank, as traders shifted focus to the energy crisis in Europe and the slowing economy in China.

The Aussie pared earlier gains to be mostly flat at $0.6801 , hovering not too far from its lowest level in seven weeks at $0.6773.

The currency barely reacted to the move by Australia's central bank to raise its cash rate to a seven-year high of 2.35% on Tuesday, which had been widely expected by the market.

The Kiwi also trimmed earlier advances and last stood at $0.6096. Near-term support comes in around $0.6050.

"A$ was little moved by the RBA decision which contained few surprises and perhaps kept something in reserve for Governor Lowe's speech on Thursday," said Sean Callow at Westpac.

"Near term, we see the renewed squeeze on net energy importers such as Europe and North Asia as likely to keep a lid on global risk appetite and thus expect the A$ to slip towards another test of the July lows around 0.6680, with rallies capped in the 0.6850/90 zone."

The Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe will be giving a briefing on the country's economic outlook and monetary policy on Thursday, and traders will be scrutinising his comments for the rate hike path ahead.

The markets are leaning toward another half-point hike in October and for rates to peak around 3.85%, given inflation is running at a 21-year high of 6.1% and likely to top 7% by Christmas.

The RBA aims to keep inflation in a band of 2-3% over time, and currently does not see it coming back to 3% until late 2024.

Yields on Australian government bond futures firmed slightly after the rate hike by RBA, with the three-year bond yield last up 2 basis points at 3.317%, compared with the previous close, while ten-year yield was up by a similar margin at 3.673%.

A sharp drop in the yuan to its lowest level in two years also added to the pressure as the Aussie is often sold as a liquid proxy for the Chinese currency.

Late on Monday, Chinese authorities cut the foreign exchange reserve requirement ratio (RRR), freeing up dollars for banks to sell, a move seen as aimed at slowing the yuan's recent depreciation.

(Reporting by Stella Qiu in Sydney and Kevin Buckland in Tokyo Editing by Shri Navaratnam)