KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar hit a six-year low overnight following yesterday's slashing of the official cash rate and announcements that the crown accounts were in the red and the trade deficit was greater than expected.
The kiwi fell to US$51.27c, the lowest since December 2002, according to Reuters data, after the central bank cut interest rates by 150 basis points to 3.5 per cent and hinted at more cuts.
The NZD generally traded above US52.30c before yesterday's 9am OCR announcement, but since then it has lurked below that.
At 5pm yesterday it was worth US51.95c and at 8am today it was down a further half cent to be worth US51.44c.
Overnight it touched the six-year low before rising again and briefly reaching a high of US52.26c.
In other currencies the NZD was this morning up against the Australian dollar at A78.66c and against the euro at 0.3972 from 5pm yesterday.
It was down against the Japanese yen at 46.19 and lost more than half a pence against the British pound to go to 36.02p.
The trade weighted index stood at 51.82.
In overseas foreign exchanges the United States dollar and yen rose broadly as bleak US economic data and falling share prices kept investors wary of risk even as countries embraced more monetary and fiscal stimulus to boost growth.
The euro shed more than 1 per cent to fall below US$1.30 and plunged against the yen after billionaire investor George Soros, cited by Bloomberg, told an Austrian newspaper that the currency may not survive without a European Union plan to deal with toxic debt.
The euro was down 1.2 per cent at US$1.2975 after earlier falling to US$1.2934. Against the yen, it was off 1.9 per cent at 116.46. The dollar fell 0.7 per cent to 89.74 yen.
Sterling rose 0.7 per cent to US$1.4310, boosted by currency flows that outweighed weak UK data. The euro fell 1.8 per cent to 90.75 pence .
- NZPA
