The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to leave interest rates unaltered sat heavily on the ‘Kiwi’ during Australasian trading.
The South Pacific asset was struggling against the majority of its currency counterparts and was in line to post a five-day decline against peers like the US Dollar and Pound.
However, the New Zealand Dollar was able to claw back some losses following the release of surprisingly upbeat domestic trade balance data.
New Zealand recorded a 523 million Dollar trade surplus in December thanks to a rise in exports to China.
The value of exports increased from a positively revised 4.48 billion New Zealand Dollars in November to 4.76 billion New Zealand Dollars in December.
The EUR/NZD pairing also lost ground in the European session as German retail sales declined unexpectedly.
The 2.5 per cent month-on-month drop in sales went against expectations for a 0.2 per cent increase and followed yesterday’s less-than-impressive inflation data for Germany.
Additional Euro movement occurred as trading progressed and inflation in the Eurozone unexpectedly slowed to less than half the European Central Bank’s target in January, with consumer prices advancing by an annual 0.7 per cent following December’s 0.8 per cent gain.
Economists had expected consumer prices to advance to 0.9 per cent.
However, Euro losses were limited by the news that the Eurozone’s unemployment rate held at a positively revised 12.0 per cent in December rather than coming in at 12.1 per cent as forecast.
Next week there are several bits of New Zealand news to watch out for, including domestic unemployment figures and the nation’s house price report.
Some economists have forecast that the ‘Kiwi’ will soon recover declines.
In the opinion of forex expert Dan Bell; ‘The fact remains that we will see interest rate hikes this year – that’s a given. We’re going to be one of the only central banks in the developed world raising interest rates and that should continue to provide support for the New Zealand Dollar.’
In other currency news, the Pound strengthened against several of its major peers today as UK consumer confidence improved.
Euro (EUR) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Euro,
,US Dollar,1.3546 ,
Euro,,British Pound,0.8233 ,
Euro,,Australian Dollar,1.5458 ,
Euro,,New Zealand Dollar,1.6627 ,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.5149 ,
[/table]
