Week of Risk Appetite Boosts New Zealand Dollar

The improving outlook for the global economic recovery helped the New Zealand dollar to rise for the most part of the week (in fact, the upward trend showed itself in the week before) and become one of the best performing currency (together with the Australian dollar) this week.
The New Zealand dollar was rising for four days of this week, declining only on Tuesday versus the yen and the greenback. Excluding this decline, it was rising for seven days. Against the euro the currency was posting gains for eight consecutive days.
The decline was caused by the concerns for the US economy, after the Federal Reserve hasn’t increased the interest rates, and by the speculation that the stress test didn’t showed the true strength (or rather weakness) of the European banks. But in general, this week was the week of the risk appetite. The good report from the US about the jobless claims and the outlook for the continuing economic growth in China (the second largest trading partner of New Zealand) allowed the higher-yielding currencies, including the New Zealand dollar, to appreciate. The data from New Zealand itself was also favorable: the overseas trade index rose 2.1 percent as the export prices advanced by 3.8 percent and the import prices increased by 1.7 percent.
NZD/USD closed at 0.7278 after opening this week at 0.7188 and falling to the weekly low of 0.7157. EUR/NZD dropped from 1.7922 to 1.7455. NZD/JPY went up from 60.62 to 61.27, following the slump to 59.66.

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