People have been weighing up public statements yesterday by both Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor Adrian Orr and by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe and have decided Orr seems the more dovish of the two, Rudings said.
"People are putting that bet on that the Australian economy is going to outperform New Zealand's."
Mind you, Lowe wasn't any bundle of optimism, telling journalists Australia faced its worst downturn since the 1930s depression and warning of "difficult days ahead."
Orr's focus was on urging the banks to support small to medium sized businesses through the crisis. He said one reason for ordering the major banks to stop paying dividends to their Australian parents was to ensure government assistance, such as the business finance guarantee scheme, does end up with NZ businesses.
Orr had also urged the banks to support businesses too small to qualify for the scheme – it is aimed at businesses with annual turnover between $250,000 and $80 million.
"Sitting underneath that there is an enormous number of businesses that just don't qualify for that activity. This is where banks and financial institutions need to step up," Orr said yesterday.
Weak global equities markets and collapsing oil prices haven't helped sentiment either.
New Zealand's cases of new infection today numbered six, up from five yesterday. Another person has died of Covid-19, taking the death toll here to 14, all of whom were over 70.
Worldwide, the number of infections is approaching 2.5 million and more than 170,000 people have died. The US is the worst affected with almost 800,000 infected and more than 42,500 deaths.
The New Zealand dollar was trading at 48.49 British pence from 48.24 at 5pm yesterday, at 54.90 euro cents from 55.23, at 64.08 yen from 64.34 and at 4.2197 Chinese yuan from 4.2409.
The bid price on the two-year swap rate closed at 0.3275 per cent, unchanged from yesterday, while 10-year swaps were at 0.8575 per cent from 0.8700.
