The kiwi dollar continued to trade in a holding pattern today, as the market heads into the Christmas-New Year holiday.
At 5pm today the kiwi was trading at US71.37c, up slightly on its US71.23c close yesterday.
A worse than expected trade deficit failed to impact the kiwi to any great degree. A trade deficit of $679 million was recorded in November, according to Statistics New Zealand, against economists' estimates of $467m. The annual trade deficit swelled to $4.19 billion. The preliminary figures showed November imports at $3.3 billion -- the highest ever recorded in a month.
The numbers come on the back of worse than expected current account deficit data released on Tuesday. The balance of payments deficit in the September quarter was $3.09 billion, while the September year deficit was $8.23 billion.
While the deficit data was disappointing, yesterday's gross domestic product (GDP) figures were in line with economists' forecasts, showing the economy grew 0.6 per cent in the September quarter, while the growth rate in the September year was 4.6 per cent.
Analysts said the figures make it less likely the Reserve Bank will hike interest rates again, which, combined with Tuesday's big current account deficit, may make the kiwi less attractive.
At 5pm the Australian dollar was trading at US76.54c from US76.45c at 5pm yesterday, the euro was buying US$1.3433 (US$1.3357) and the greenback was fetching 103.93 yen (104.35 yen).
On the crosses, the kiwi was at A93.24c (A93.15c yesterday) 0.5313 euro (0.5332), 37.19 British pence (36.93), 74.18 yen (74.31), and 0.8200 Swiss francs (0.8224).
The trade-weighted index was unchanged at 68.95, while the monetary conditions index was at plus 917 (918).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were at 6.74 per cent (6.75), February 2006 bonds were unchanged at 6.34 per cent and July 2009s were unchanged at 6.01 per cent, while the April 2013s were at 5.97 per cent (5.96).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi continues to trade tight range
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