Currency: Kiwi dollar nears six year low against greenback

The New Zealand dollar tumbled to near six-year lows against the greenback, as continuing grim economic news out of the United States fuelled further safe-haven buying of the US currency.

By 8am today the kiwi was buying US49.87c, its second lowest level against the US dollar in six years and just a little above the level around US49.65c reached in early February.

The US dollar climbed broadly as a sharp contraction in the US economy, US stocks trading near 12-year lows and a new rescue attempt for Citigroup boosted the greenback's status as a safe haven currency.

ANZ bank said the safe-haven demand for the greenback had weighed on the NZ dollar.

The kiwi struggled to keep above US50c early on Saturday, although a brief dip below that level had seen reasonable demand.

Meanwhile, analysts said the Japanese yen rebounded from sharp weekly losses as month-end and repatriation flows gave some support to the currency.

The NZ dollar slipped against the yen to 48.63 by today's local open from 49.35 at Friday's local close.

The kiwi was also down to 0.3944 euro at 8am, around its lowest level in three weeks, from 0.3975 at 5pm on Friday, and down to A78.09c against the Australian dollar from A78.35c. The trade weighted index was 51.42 at 8am from 51.97 at 5pm on Friday.

- NZPA