KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar drifted lower today at the start of a week expected to confirm the highest inflation rate in 18 years and a hefty cut in official interest rates.
By 5pm the NZ dollar was at US61.20c, down from US61.55c at 8am but recovered from a dip below the US61c figure. The currency was US61.81c at 5pm on Friday.
The focus this week is on domestic data for a change with third quarter inflation figures due out tomorrow. The median expectation of economists in a Reuters survey is for a rise of 1.5 per cent in the three months to the end of September.
That would take the annual rate to 5.1 per cent, the highest since the second quarter of 1990.
At the same time, 11 of 16 surveyed economists expected the Reserve Bank to cut the official cash rate (OCR) by 100 basis points to 6.5 per cent in Thursday's review.
The low-yielding yen dipped today as investors became slightly more confident about the policy actions to fix financial markets and the global economy that relies on them.
The NZ dollar was at 62.27 yen from 62.74 yen at 5pm on Friday and 0.4548 euro from 0.4590.
The NZ dollar was at A87.89c at 5pm from A89.10c last week. The trade weighted index was 60.52 at 5pm from 61.11.
Currency rates:
NZ dlr/US dlr US61.20c US61.81c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A87.89c A89.10c
NZ dlr/euro 0.4548 0.4590
NZ dlr/yen 62.27 62.74
NZ dlr/stg 35.27p 35.64p
NZ TWI 60.52 61.11
Australian dollar US69.61c US69.36c
Euro/US dollar 1.3458 1.3467
US dollar/yen 101.72 101.57
- NZPA
