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 per cent 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."
