The New Zealand dollar fell against the euro after minutes of the last European Central Bank meeting showed policymakers discussed ending the bank's extraordinarily stimulatory monetary policy at their June 8-9 meeting.
The kiwi dollar fell to 63.72 euro cents as at 8am in Wellington from 64.18 cents late yesterday. It was little changed at 72.74 US cents. The trade-weighted index was little changed at 78.23 from 78.25 yesterday.
The ECB minutes showed policymakers decided against boosting the bank's bond-buying programme and were willing to discuss reviewing its easing bias in coming meetings. "If confidence in the inflation outlook improved further, the case for retaining this bias could be reviewed," the notes say.
"Comments from ECB officials did nothing to dampen market expectations that shifts in policy stances are in the pipeline," said Imre Speizer, senior markets strategist at Westpac Banking Corp, in a note. "The ECB minutes confirmed that pressure to remove the easing bias had increased with positive survey data and the broadening and strengthening of growth."
Meanwhile, the US ADP private sector payrolls report showed a smaller-than-expected 158,000 jobs added in the US last month, stoking speculation the official non-farm payrolls data due in the US on Friday could also be on the weak side.
