NZ dollar drops on report ECB mulling negative interest rates, Fed still watching data

Thursday 21st November 2013

The New Zealand fell more than half a US cent after reports the European Central Bank was considering negative interest rates, and after the Federal Reserve reiterated that it is watching economic data closely before winding back its stimulus programme.

The kiwi dropped to 82.75 US cents at 8am in Wellington from 83.45 cents at 5pm yesterday. The trade-weighted index declined to 77.40 from 77.71 yesterday.

Europe's monetary authority may consider try to kick the regional economy into life by taking the deposit rate into negative territory, according to Bloomberg reports. The Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback against a basket of currencies, climbed 0.5 percent to 81.03 on the news.

The greenback held those gains after the minutes the Federal Open Market Committee's last policy meeting showed the US central bank will continue to monitor the country's economic recovery before dialling back its US$85 billion a month asset purchase programme.

"We saw risk currencies slide off on the back of Europe discussing the possibility of negative interest rates," said Steve Cheval, corporate senior dealer at HiFX in Auckland. "The Fed commentary was not too different from what they've said in the past and that any tapering will be on the basis of economic data."

HiFX's Cheval said the kiwi may trade between 82.50 US cents and 83.80 cents today, and has an overall trend to go higher.

With little local data scheduled today, traders are looking toward tomorrow's speech by Reserve Bank assistant governor John McDermott on the influences on the exchange rate. The central bank has been balancing a heating property market, which threatens to fuel increases in consumer spending, against the strong currency cooling imported prices.

The local currency fell to 82.90 yen at 8am in Wellington from 83.44 yen yesterday, and slipped to 88.45 Australian cents from 88.59 cents. It increased to 61.62 euro cents from 61.53 cents yesterday, and declined to 51.36 British pence from 51.77 pence.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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