KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar is close to breaching the US80c level as its astounding climb continues.
The kiwi hit a fresh 22-year post-float high against the greenback of US79.91c early on Saturday, having climbed from around US79.53c about 4.45pm on Friday, according to Reuters data. By 8am today it was down just slightly on the new peak at US79.81c.
While the rise of the NZ currency has partly come about due to US dollar weakness, the kiwi is also rising against other major currencies.
The trade weighted index, which measures the NZ dollar against a basket of currencies, hit a new life high of 76.21 and by 8am today was just below that at 76.18.
As overseas investors remain keen on carry trades, where they borrow a low interest rate currency such as the yen to invest in higher yielding assets such as the kiwi, the NZ dollar's climb against the Japanese currency also continued.
Early on Saturday the NZ dollar hit a fresh multi-year high of 97.52 yen, from 97.18 at 4.45pm on Friday. By 8am today the kiwi was at 97.32 yen.
Also early on Saturday, the kiwi hit an 18-month high against the European currency of 0.5779 euro, from 0.5763 on Friday afternoon. By 8am today it was at 0.5769.
The NZ dollar remains more restrained against its Australian counterpart. Although the kiwi did move from below A89.90c early on Friday to near A90.75c on Saturday morning, it remained below the 17-month high above A91.65c hit in early July. By 8am today the kiwi was buying A90.69c.
- NZPA