Dollar heads higher on woeful US

FIle Photo

The New Zealand dollar picked up the pace against a broadly weaker greenback after the three-day Labour Weekend, and continued recovering from a six-month low against the Australian dollar.

By 5pm, the kiwi was buying US75.27, a touch weaker than this morning's US75.36c. It had been at US74.78c at 5pm on Friday.

The key factor for the kiwi remained US dollar weakness as a result of the US Federal Reserve's soft approach to curbing inflation. The US dollar was hovering close to a record low of 79.75 yen this afternoon.

"The USD has no hope of mounting a sustainable multi-week rally as long as the Fed remains the most aggressively dovish central bank," said Westpac NZ senior market strategist Imre Speizer.

"The picture is no less bearish beyond that - US policymakers have essentially 'put the world on notice' that they plan to address several chronic dislocations (ie too high unemployment, too low inflation and still large external imbalances), and the scale of USD weakness required is arguably very significant."

Westpac expected the kiwi to revisit the key US76.40c level this week, reached earlier this month, opening the way to a more than two-year high of US77.60c.

The no-change expected on Thursday from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand when it releases its latest interest rate decision dominated the local calendar.

"Another pause is unanimously expected, but there is room for the RBNZ to issue an even more dovish statement than it did in September and cement market expectations for a nine-month pause," Mr Speizer said.

Against the aussie, the kiwi was at A75.98c, after briefly slipping below A75.60c last night. The kiwi had been at A76.29c late on Friday afternoon.

The NZ dollar was weaker at 0.5393 euro, but rose to 60.85 yen from 60.69 on Friday, and 47.86 pence from 47.57p.

The trade weighted index was at 66.63 from Friday's 66.44.

- NZPA