NEW YORK: The New Zealand dollar rose, touching a fresh record against the Aussie dollar, after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting suggested officials may favour keeping US interest rates lower for longer.
The kiwi jumped to 75.52 US cents at 8.30am in Wellington, from 75.17 cents ahead of the 8am release of the minutes, and 75.36 cents at 5pm yesterday.
The local currency touched a fresh post-float high of 96.85 Australian cents following the minutes, and was trading at 96.47 cents at 8.30am from 96.61 cents at 8am and 96.31 cents yesterday.
The greenback weakened after the minutes from the Fed’s last meeting on January 27-28 showed policy makers argued for keeping interest rates near record lows for longer as they weighed risks facing the US economy.
The Federal Open Market Committee considered the risks to be “nearly balanced” but pointed to a stronger dollar, global tensions and slow wage growth as weakening the case for a rate rise.
In New Zealand today, the ANZ monthly consumer confidence report is released at 1pm. Data on producer prices, capital goods prices and farm expenses are due out at 10.45am.
Finance Minister Bill English is scheduled to speak to the Institute of Public Affairs in Wellington at midday.
