NZ dollar falls vs euro after ECB minutes show discussion of end to easing bias

Friday 7th July 2017

The New Zealand dollar fell against the euro after minutes of the last European Central Bank meeting showed policymakers discussed ending the bank's extraordinarily stimulatory monetary policy at their June 8-9 meeting.

The kiwi dollar fell to 63.72 euro cents as at 8am in Wellington from 64.18 cents late yesterday. It was little changed at 72.74 US cents. The trade-weighted index was little changed at 78.23 from 78.25 yesterday.

The ECB minutes showed policymakers decided against boosting the bank's bond-buying programme and were willing to discuss reviewing its easing bias in coming meetings. "If confidence in the inflation outlook improved further, the case for retaining this bias could be reviewed," the notes say.

"Comments from ECB officials did nothing to dampen market expectations that shifts in policy stances are in the pipeline," said Imre Speizer, senior markets strategist at Westpac Banking Corp, in a note. "The ECB minutes confirmed that pressure to remove the easing bias had increased with positive survey data and the broadening and strengthening of growth."

Meanwhile, the US ADP private sector payrolls report showed a smaller-than-expected 158,000 jobs added in the US last month, stoking speculation the official non-farm payrolls data due in the US on Friday could also be on the weak side. The market is expecting it to show 178,000 new jobs were added in June, up from 138,000 in May, while the unemployment rate held at 4.3 percent.

Investors are also awaiting the G20 meeting this weekend, with North Korea's first successful intercontinental ballistic missile test likely to be on the agenda and US President Donald Trump expected to meet with both his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

The kiwi rose to 95.86 Australian cents from 95.70 cents and was little changed at 4.9483 yuan from 4.9477 yuan. It fell to 56.09 pence from 56.23 pence and rose to 82.39 yen from 82.23 yen.

(BusinessDesk)

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