KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand dollar continued to tumble overnight against most major currencies.
Earlier this morning the kiwi was buying US54.67c, from US56.13 at 5pm yesterday. It was last at this level in mid-December.
The New Zealand dollar was also down against the Australian dollar to A82.90c from A84.50c, the euro to 0.4159 from 0.4211, Japanese yen to 48.75 from 50.21 and sterling to 37.76p from 38.02p.
Sentiment was soured yesterday by the negative outlook of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's quarterly survey of business opinion.
Business confidence fell to levels last seen in the 1970s, and most believed the worst was to come.
A net 44 per cent of firms reported lower activity for the December quarter, and a similar amount expected trading activity to fall further next quarter.
A net 77 per cent, seasonally adjusted, expected the general business situation to deteriorate in the next six months.
On top of that, S&P downgraded the outlook on New Zealand's foreign currency-denominated debt to negative from stable as the country's position worsened.
The Australian dollar fell against the US dollar, to US65.92c at 8am from US67.58c, as did the euro at 1.3158 from 1.3326.
- NZPA
