KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar remained steady today after a disappointing weekend for currencies .
The kiwi dollar traded quietly and closed virtually unchanged at US75.06c compared to Friday's close of US75.02c.
Over the weekend the kiwi dipped to a four-and-a-half month low of US74.45c but k icked off stronger this morning as the greenback stumbled over a lack of currency-supportive comments from a meeting of G8 finance ministers.
"Global markets are very dicey at the moment," Westpac currency analyst Michael Gordon said. "The real focus is on the inflation concerns which are obviously being driven by food and fuel prices...
"At the moment, it's tending to show up as a stronger US dollar, the reason being they have the most scope to raise interest rates, but at the same time you're also seeing Europe talking about hiking rates in the near future as well."
For the kiwi dollar, Mr Gordon said the market was on hold until Q1 GDP figures came out next week, but even then a negative number was expected.
Importers had shown some interest in buying the kiwi today but it had been offset by some selling against the Aussie dollar. The kiwi continued lurk below the A80c figure today, closing at US79.95c against US79.83c on Friday.
It made slight gains against the euro and yen to 0.4874 euro (0.4860 on Friday) and 81.24 yen (80.85 yen).
The trade weighted index was 67.73 from 67.61.
The greenback consolidated near a four-month high against the yen, after dipping fractionally after the G8 meeting, closing locally at 108.23 yen (107.78). It closed at 1.5399 euros (1.5436).
- NZPA
