The New Zealand dollar fell after Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler said he may intervene to dampen the currency's rise because the kiwi is still over-valued.
The kiwi was trading at about 81.33 US cents before the 8am speech and recently traded at 80.92 US cents, from 80.68 cents at 5pm yesterday.
The central bank is expected this afternoon to detail how much kiwi it sold last month in an attempt to weaken the local currency, which Wheeler said today was significantly overvalued. An easing in house price pressures would increase the possibility that interest rates could stay at their current 2.5 per cent beyond this year, Wheeler said.
"The market saw the speech as reducing the possibility of any interest rate hikes to deal with the housing market," said Sam Tuck, senior manager FX at ANZ New Zealand. "That would naturally lead to a lower dollar because of lower yields."
The central bank is likely to say it sold $200 million to $400 million of the local currency in April to halt its rise, Tuck said. Wheeler may spend as much as $500 million a month of the bank's $9 billion capacity to limit the local currency's rise over the next few years, Tuck said.
