Kiwi up against yen, greenback on global economic buoyancy

Wednesday 11th May 2011

Signs of buoyancy in the global economy boosted the New Zealand dollar against the so-called safe haven currencies of the United States and Japan.

At 8am today the kiwi was buying US79.47c from US79.23c at 5pm yesterday, and lifted to 64.24 yen from 63.69.

BNZ currency strategist Mike Jones said the global backdrop was supporting demand for growth sensitive currencies such as the NZ and Australian dollars.

Chinese trade date yesterday had revealed a much larger surplus than expected, while Greek sovereign default fears abated somewhat, Jones said.

Global stock markets also posted solid gains while commodity prices clawed back more of the ground lost last week.

The buoyant global picture had encouraged demand for the likes of the NZ and Australian dollars at the expense of safe haven currencies such as the yen and greenback, Jones said.

Despite that, the NZ dollar had been unable to sustain gains above the US79.60c level, perhaps reflecting a slide in the kiwi against the aussie which was triggered by impressive Australian trade balance figures yesterday.

The NZ dollar was down to A73.33c at 8am from A73.58c at 5pm, and slipped to 0.5519 euro from 0.5531. The trade weighted index was 68.26 at 8am from 68.18 at 5pm.

NZPA

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