The New Zealand dollar was flat today against its US counterpart and the euro because of conflicting fundamentals. On one hand, the news from China was good, boosting risk appetite among Forex traders. On the other, domestic economic data was not helpful for the New Zealand currency. The kiwi managed to rise versus the Japanese yen.
New bank lending in China jumped almost three times in January from the previous month, exceeding analysts’ estimates. It reached the highest level since 2010. The news improved the market sentiment and drove the yen, which was already weak due to poor Japan’s economic growth, further down, allowing NZD/JPY to gain.
New Zealand retail sales grew 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 from the previous three months. The expansion was bigger than the third quarter’s 0.2 percent, but it was still below the traders’ expectations of 1.7 percent.
NZD/USD traded near the opening level of 0.8364 and EUR/NZD was at 1.6377, not far from the opening of 1.6370, as of 23:21 GMT today. Meanwhile, NZD/JPY advanced from 85.03 to 85.40.
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