KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar hitched a ride on slightly better than expected growth data today, recovering from an ugly current account deficit.
By 5pm, the kiwi had risen to US76.28c from US75.63c late yesterday afternoon, outpacing a smaller gain for the Australian dollar, which pushed the cross-rate to A88.40c from A87.92c yesterday.
On the trade weighted index, the kiwi rose to 71.66 from 71.01.
The economy grew at a slightly better than forecast rate in the third quarter, with gross domestic product rising 0.5 per cent, down from 0.8 per cent the previous quarter but beating expectations of a 0.4 per cent rise.
The annual rate of 2.7 per cent was up from 2.1 per cent in the June year, Statistics NZ said.
The kiwi was pushed down yesterday by news of a wider third quarter current account deficit of $5.17 billion, against forecasts of $4.9 billion.
One dealer said the kiwi hit a session high today of US76.43c, but remained ensconced within its three-month range of US74c to US79c.
"We've seen reasonable demand for it all day. Both the kiwi and the Aussie have shown a firm tone today on the back of end of month squaring, (there's) good local demand for the currency as well, and it looks like we might remain that way coming into next weekend and the weekend after," the dealer said.
Trading was quieter leading into the holiday season.
The US dollar remained near a two-month high against the euro, and a six-week high against the yen in thin trade, although it was weighed down by ongoing concerns about credit conditions and the economic outlook.
Reuters currency rates:
5pm today 5pm yesterday
NZ dlr/US dlr US76.28c US75.63c
NZ dlr/Aust dlr A88.40c A87.92c
NZ dlr/euro 0.5313 0.5258
NZ dlr/yen 86.31 85.66
NZ dlr/stg 38.39 37.84p
NZ TWI 71.66 71.01
Australian dollar US86.28c US86.03c
Euro/US dollar 1.4355 1.4365
US dollar/yen 113.18 113.30
- NZPA