NZ dollar slips ahead of current account stats

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The New Zealand dollar fell ahead of current account data for the first quarter and as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou seeks to survive a confidence vote that may be the key to a financial rescue for the European Union nation.

The nation recorded a current account deficit of $4.3 billion in the three months ended March 31, or 4.3 per cent of gross domestic product, according to a Bloomberg survey.

In Greece, Papandreou's cabinet is expected to narrowly win the vote, with the Greek opposition having already signaled it would support austerity measures.

The vote comes after European Union officials issued Greece with ultimatum yesterday, calling on the country to pass a new five-year package of economic reforms in the next two weeks in return for the next payment tranche of 12 billion euros under the current bailout.

"There optimism out there that it will go the right way, and that sets a chain of events which suggests they'll vote on an austerity package next week," said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Banking.

The kiwi recently traded at 81.16 U.S. cents, down from 81.32 cents yesterday, and fell to 69.98 on the trade-weighted index of major trading partners' currencies from 70.22.

It slipped to 76.51 Australian cents from 76.87 cents previously, and dropped to 64.99 yen from 65.19 yen.

It fell to 56.30 euro cents from 56.61 cents from yesterday, and declined to 49.96 pence from 50.13 pence previously.

US housing data continued to decline, with existing home sales in May falling 3.8 per cent to 4.8 million compared to the previous month.

On an annual basis, the number of sales fell 15.3 per cent compared to May last year.

The kiwi is likely to trade between a range of 80.40 US cents and 81.50 cents, Speizer said.