Currency: Dollar under pressure

The New Zealand dollar was under pressure today due to ongoing uncertainty about the direction of the world economy.

The NZ dollar was at US62.36c at 5pm, down from US62.83c at 8am and US62.96c at 5pm Friday.

New Zealand Retail sales data for May was much stronger than expected but economists argued that electronic card transaction data for June suggests retail sales will be weak in June.

"These days the electronic card transactions report is our preferred timely indicator of household spending," said Darren Gibbs at Deutsche Bank. The retail sales data had limited impact on markets.

Westpac said the NZ dollar has been locked in a range since June 3 and the range has been narrowing.

"We expect the eventual break to be downward," Westpac said.

The New Zealand market is also waiting for Consumer Price Index data due on Thursday and business surveys this week in Australia.

Westpac said the NZ dollar is near the top end of a multi-month range against the Australian dollar and is also vulnerable to a test of lower levels.

The NZ dollar was trading at A80.48c at 5pm from A80.40c on Friday.

The NZ dollar declined to 0.4482 euro at 5pm from 0.4515 and to 57.65 yen from 58.50.

The trade weighted index was at 59.24 from 59.56 on Friday.

Currency rates:

NZ dlr/US dlr US62.36c US62.96c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A80.48c A80.40c

NZ dlr/euro 0.4482 0.4515

NZ dlr/yen 57.65 58.50

NZ dlr/stg 38.73 38.57p

NZ TWI 59.24 59.56

Aust dlr/US dlr 77.50c 78.26c

Euro/US dlr 1.3916 1.3984

US dlr/yen 92.45 92.99

- NZPA