NZD near 5-month low against Aussie

The New Zealand dollar remained around a five-month low against its Australian counterpart after another indication of looming interest rate rises across the Tasman.

The Australian dollar remained near a two-year high against the US dollar after the release of minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest meeting, in which the bank said interest rates were likely to rise to contain inflationary pressures from the mining sector.

The next RBA rate rise is seen as soon as next month. That is in contrast with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which is expected to remain on hold until early next year.

Overnight, the Australian dollar rose more than 1 per cent against the greenback and touched as high as US94.94c, its strongest since mid-2008, after RBA Governor Glenn Stevens suggested Australian interest rates would rise further.

The NZ dollar recovered from a low of A76.80c early today, dragging itself back to A77.04c at 5pm, only slightly down on its level at 5pm yesterday.

The kiwi slipped from an earlier peak of around US72.96c to US72.77c at 5pm, unchanged from yesterday.

It was a touch weaker against the euro and yen, but firmed against sterling to 46.73p from yesterday's 46.43p.

The trade weighted index was steady at 66.85.

The US dollar remained weak ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow morning (NZT) which may suggest the need to inject more stimulus into the economy. While more Fed easing is not expected immediately, the central bank may give some indication of its readiness to bolster the economy.

- NZPA