Currency: Dollar falls against Aussie

The New Zealand dollar recovered from a slide to a seven-month low against its Australian counterpart after the Reserve Bank of Australia left its key cash rate at 3.25 per cent on Tuesday.

Early today the kiwi fell to the A77.10c region, close to the level reached in late July, which was the lowest level since the end of 2000.

But by 5pm the NZ dollar had recovered to A78.10c from A77.60c at the same time yesterday.

The recovery came care off weak Australian gross domestic product data. Australian real gross domestic product fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.5 per cent in the December quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. It was the first negative quarter of economic growth since the December quarter of 2000.

"The major focus today has been the weaker Australian GDP data," said ANZ chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley.

However, proximity to a weak Australian economy helped push the New Zealand dollar to another six-year low during the session. It touched US49.01c, its lowest since November 2002, but rose to close at US49.50c from US49.68c yesterday.

The NZ dollar had fallen to six-year lows earlier this week.

The NZ dollar rose against the euro to 0.3960 euro from 0.3934 yesterday and against the yen it rose to 48.70 yen from 48.45 yen.

The trade weighted index was 51.46 from 51.29 yesterday.

Currency rates:

5pm today 5pm yesterday

NZ dlr/US dlr US49.50c US49.68c

NZ dlr/Aust dlr A78.10c A77.60c

NZ dlr/euro 0.3960 0.3934

NZ dlr/yen 48.70 48.45

NZ dlr/stg 35.30p 35.24p

NZ TWI 51.46 51.29

Aust dlr/US dlr 63.32c 63.96c

Euro/US dlr 1.2496 1.2624

US dlr/yen 98.40 97.48

- NZPA