The kiwi sank further during local trade today with news of soft fourth quarter economic growth weighing further on the already beleaguered currency.
The kiwi closed at US71.84c today down from US72.92c at 5pm yesterday and the US74.43c post float closing high it reached last Friday.
The kiwi, under pressure this week from a resurgent US dollar and soft local economic data, hit a low of US71.53c today following weaker than anticipated gross domestic product (GDP) data. Its high for the day was US71.91c before the GDP was released.
The data showed the economy grew a moderate 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, down from 0.6 per cent in the September quarter and below most forecasts.
The kiwi also weakened against the aussie, and by 5pm today was buying A92.86c (A93.46c at 5pm yesterday).
ANZ Investment Bank chief foreign exchange dealer Murray Hindley said the kiwi was still seeing a lot of selling from offshore investors.
"Going into the Easter break we're going to be a the bottom of the week's range and there is risk for further weakness over the holiday period."
Meanwhile at 5pm today the Australian dollar was at US77.35c (from US78.03c at 5pm yesterday), the euro was at US$1.2992 (US$1.3083) and the greenback was at 106.20 yen (105.35).
The trade-weighted index was at 70.21 (70.91) and the monetary conditions index was at plus 1043 (1089).
On other cross rates, 0.5530 euro (0.5576), 38.38 British pence (38.66), 76.30 yen (76.83) and 0.8594 Swiss francs (0.8668).
On the money markets, 90-day bank bill yields were unchanged at 7.06 per cent, July 2009 bonds were at 6.35 per cent (6.32) and April 2015s were at 6.22 per cent (6.21).
- NZPA
<EM>Currency:</EM> Kiwi softens further on GDP data
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